I think I have talked before about a concept called "Meatless Mondays". I first heard about it from Iron Chef Mario Batali. This week I saw Paul McCartney, a well-known vegetarian, promoting no meat Mondays. So my wife must have had ESP when she suggested making this dish.
From the picture it may not be obvious there is anything out of the ordinary with these sloppy joes, but that is actually lentils -- not ground meat. I started by rinsing and then boiling the lentils. In the meantime I had another pan going with red onion and diced red bell pepper sauteeing in olive oil. My wife likes onions much better when they have been cooked down a lot. Plus the natural sugars in the onions will start to caramelize, lending a sweetness to the dish.
Once the water had been absorbed by the lentils, I added them to my cooked down onions & peppers. Next I added ketchup and mustard (in about a 3:1 ratio), brown sugar, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, and salt & pepper.
Stir everything together and let the flavor marry for a few minutes. As your sauce reduces, it will thicken and become a little sweeter.
Be sure to taste it to see if you need to balance anything out. I like to have a nice amount of heat, with the sweetness of the brown sugar, and acidity from the mustard & vinegar.
Server this on a fresh wheat bun with a few pickles and you'll notice all those familiar flavors. The lentils have a nice chew to them, so you won't miss the meat. It isn't exactly the same; but it's a pretty darned good substitute.
We made sweet potato chips to go with ours. I'll give a quick update in the next day or so with how to make those little beauties.
No comments:
Post a Comment