Vegan Sloppy Joe Love

Vegan Sloppy Joes

I know it’s the middle of summer but apart from gorging myself on peaches I pretty much eat like I always do.  After not being shunned last week when I admitted to not being a salad person, I now feel comfortable coming out about my favourite type of comfort food.   The keywords are saucy and warm.  Last night before bed, I was craving sloppy joes and when I got up this morning I just had to make them for breakfast.  In the last few months I’ve enjoyed two recipes - one from Veganomicon using lentils and another featuring tofu from La Dolce Vegan.   I had a fairly lazy cooking week and definitely wanted to try a new recipe.  In the interests of time and my grumbling tummy, I decided on a recipe from another Sarah Kramer book - How it all Vegan and substituted tofu for the tvp.  It was really satisfying (read saucy) and for me, it had the perfect blend of spices.  And the best part is that no-one else in my little family of three likes sloppy joes so I only had to give up the heart-shaped toast to my daughter and the rest of the pot was mine!  I guess nobody else in the family appreciates the slop like I do.  Maybe it’s the dill pickle?    

The recipe consists of two parts; first blending all of the sauce ingredients – tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, onion and spices together and then frying up the green pepper, onion, tofu, dill pickle, spices etc in pan.  Add the two parts together and simmer for as long as you can hold off.  I served this with whole grain toast instead of the traditional bun but you can do whatever you like.  I stuffed myself.