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If it’s not sloppy, is it just a “a joe?”
By Kristen | April 18, 2007
Simplicity is the essence of the sloppy joe — meat + canned product + bun = done — and there’s something slightly pompous about a sloppy joe made from scratch.
Still, when I saw a FreshDirect One-Click Recipe for Not-So-Sloppy Joes (and seeing as No matches were found for “manwich” on FreshDirect1 ), I decided to try it.
Here’s the recipe (with a few adjustments I made):
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 pound ground beef
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1.5 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
0.25 teaspoon black pepper
pinch (or two) ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
sour creamHeat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper, and cook until softened. Add the beef and cook until no pink remains. Stir in the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, and salt, and 1.5 cups (or two tomato paste cans) of water. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens. Spoon the beef mixture onto bun and top with sour cream.
This was… really close to being great.
The sour cream — something I never would have thought to add to a sloppy joe — added a much-needed tanginess that the meat alone was lacking. If the sauce had, I don’t know, some vinegar or even a diced pickle2 in it, it could have been much better.
But for a recipe in which you probably have most ingredients on hand (ground beef languishing in the freezer, tomato paste you bought and promptly forgot about), it’s quite good and really easy.
And, yes, sloppy.
- Not that I live and die by the FreshDirect offerings, but I am lazy and don’t want to schlep to Key Food if I can help it. [↩]
- I seem to remember there being a recipe for TVP Sloppy Joes in How It All Vegan that used pickle in it. [↩]
Topics: Make It Yourself |
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April 18th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Your food photos are porntastic of late. I want a sloppy joe (with real meat!!!) right now more than I can say…
It wouldn’t be same with meatless crumbles, but I might try;)
April 18th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I remember the sloppy joe recipe in How It All Vegan was pretty bitchin’. If you want it, I can dig it up and email it to you.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Another way to get some of that tanginess the sour cream added would be with some hot sauce. I’m thinking Tabasco, Crystal or Louisiana brand might add some vinegary tang along with a little heat.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Good thinking. I usually rely on Goya hot sauce when I need a kinda-hot-kinda-vinegary kick.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
We’ve made our own and added some bourbon. Yum!
April 18th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
That onion bun looks so friggin’ tasty. I want to bite your sloppy joe.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I think I would eat dirt if it was served on one of those onion rolls.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Back when I had a kitchen I used to make sloppy joe’s from scratch. *sigh*
April 19th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Oh! My mom has the best sloppy joe recipe that I just went through my recipe files to find. You’ve reminded me to make it (and maybe add some sour cream??)I think the recipe uses a brown sugar-tomato-vinegar combination..
April 19th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
The hub made sloppy joes from scratch recently. My recollection is that recipe was from Alton Brown or Bobby Flay or maybe epicurious. It called for chipotles which are canned in vinegar (often). Problem is, hub used 1 can instead of the called for 1 T. OUCH!
Anyway… i’d say vinegar and tomato and brown sugar sounds like a good combo to get the sweet and tangy together.
Try again and tell us how it turns out!
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 pm
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:36 am