vegan lentil sloppy joes

Take a burger break and enjoy healthy vegan lentil sloppy joes with crunchy, fresh cilantro lime slaw. This fun recipe comes together in one-pot with a quick 10-minute (or less) slaw that takes those sloppy joes from memory into a more sophisticated present.

Get that pot of vegan lentil sloppy joes going - stat!

I’m a huge fan of one-pot concoctions. Even if the ingredients need to simmer for awhile it all seems quicker if I don’t have a big conglomeration of pans waiting to be scrubbed. One-pot doesn’t mean just dumping in all the ingredients in a pot, simmering and calling it good. It all comes back to layering. Adding ingredients to build flavor in an order that makes sense. I went in depth about this concept when I shared my kidney bean curry, so check it out if you want a more thorough explanation. Point being, we’re going to go through a quick process of adding a few ingredients, cooking and adding some more.

In the case of vegan lentil sloppy joes, we’re not talking a lot of layers or ingredients. Let’s go build it, in a few easy steps.

The three-step, quick layer

I’ve boiled this down to three easy steps. We start by sautéing the chopped onion and red pepper. I purposely used red bell pepper because I like a sweeter sloppy joe. If you use a green pepper, that’s no problem. If you want it a bit sweeter, add another tablespoon of maple syrup toward the end of the cooking process. Another reason to love adding peppers to the initial sauté is that they add moisture to our oil free sautéing. Of course, if your veggies start to stick, which happens if you get the heat too high, just add a tablespoon of water or two.

I added a tiny step two because we always want to add our garlic a bit late in the sauté to keep it from burning and tasting bitter. This is also a great time to add the spices which are exactly two – cumin and smoked paprika.

Step three

Step three is where we get to toss everything else in the pot. That would be the tomato sauce and paste, the maple syrup, the vegan Worcestershire sauce (I’m coming to that in a minute), the lentils and water. I know what you might say at this point – are you serious? One cup of lentils? No way! To this I reply “yes” and “don’t be as skeptical as I was when I first tried it”. Yes, skeptic here, I had to stop myself from adding another cup of lentils the first time I tried this. I remained unconvinced until the bitter end (in about 30 minutes) I was at sloppy joes.

My cooking tips and observations

I’ve noticed about cooking lentils is that they will take longer to get tender in a tomato sauce (or other thick sauce) as compared to cooking them in water. A thick sauce is a bit insulting and water allows lentils to move more freely. This isn’t a problem, but something to consider. You’ll want to allow 30 or even 35 minutes for the lentils to get tender in your sauce.

Have you ever cooked a tomato-based sauce and ended up with tomato splattered all over? This really annoys me, so I used a large soup pot to make the sloppy joe lentil filling. That way, I avoid an unnecessary mess. I use over-sized pots for simmering all my thick sauces as well as lentils, rice and even pasta.

Quick cilantro lime slaw

When I was a kid, I loved the sloppy joe filling smashed between two buns, but that was then and well, I wanted to make this a bit of a grown-up meal. That’s not to say that I wanted to spend any extra time. Nope, not a minute longer between me and those sloppy joes. So, stop checking the lentils, they’re cooking, and we all know about those watched pots.

Quick cilantro lime slaw is just that. A super-fast slaw made with cabbage, carrots, cilantro and a splash of lime and rice vinegar. Do that when you first get the lentils cooking so that the slaw can marinate a bit. Want to make it even quicker (I did)? Grab a bag of pre-shredded cabbage. I like the cabbage mix with both green and purple because the color really grabs you.

Load up your vegan lentil sloppy joes

Sloppy joes are good enough with loads of lentil filling piled between buns, but I admit, the slaw turns this into a meal on its own. You get the crunch and tangy flavor of the slaw, plus the sweet tomato filling. If you happen to use hot smoked paprika, you will also get a bit of a kick. If you want a kick and don’t have the hot paprika, try adding ¼ teaspoon (or more) of cayenne pepper. That should do it.

Final thoughts

 I always get an extra level of satisfaction when I successfully put a plant-based spin on an old favorite recipe. But they are never the same. Think vegan lentil sloppy joes with quick cilantro slaw. This isn’t about what ingredients I’m no longer using such as oil or cheese. I believe it’s what happens when you approach something from the past from a new perspective. You shouldn’t expect an exact replication when you are applying an entirely different lens. If you allow it, your perspective can make your problems look bigger and the solutions not as-good-as your past outcomes. But a new perspective can cut through the thickest of sauces, making your possibilities look infinite. Peace.  

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