Happy Monday! Wow it’s the last week of April. Does anyone else feel like this month has just flown by? March felt like a whole year but April was so quick. Weird. Anyway, I hope you’re doing well and keeping safe at home. We will get through this, but we need to keep following the advice of health professionals to avoid things getting worse.

For now, I’m still cooking at home. Since I have so much time in a day, I feel like I’m enjoying my cooking more and I just feel more relaxed. Loving it.

This past weekend, I made these AMAZING sloppy joes. If you’ve never had one, a sloppy joe is an American dish usually made with ground beef in a sweet-tomatoey sauce, served on a hamburger bun. It might sound a little weird to those who have never had one, but they are good. My mom used to make them when I was a kid, using the can of Manwich. This time, I made a vegetarian version completely from scratch.

I found a recipe online (link here) that uses ground beef, but I made some changes to make it meatless. Instead of ground beef, I used a mix of veggie beef crumbles (Yves brand) and cooked quinoa. The quinoa helped to add more bulk to the “meat” mixture. I also used a zucchini instead of bell pepper, just because that’s what I had at home. Another change I made was cutting the ketchup to 1/4 cup and using 1/2 cup tomato passata; this drastically reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe. I also used olive oil in place of butter which made this dish vegan.

Direction-wise, since I was not using raw ground beef, I changed the order of cooking slightly – sauteed vegetables first then added “beef” and quinoa, followed by all seasoning. I will have the entire adjusted recipe below.

Once you have the finished “meat” and veggie mixture, you scoop it on a hamburger bun and dig in. It’s a little messy to eat with your hands, so I used a fork and knife. The bun is so soft and the veggies still have a little crunch, so it works well together. Even though I cut the ketchup, it’s still pretty sweet which is just how it’s supposed to be. The yellow mustard adds the perfect amount of zing and it helps to cut some of the sweetness. This was just such a good dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 340g veggie ground beef crumbles
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tsp yellow mustard
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup tomato passata (puree)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and zucchini and cook until beginning to soften, 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. While the veggies are cooking, combine garlic, mustard, ketchup, tomato passata, brown sugar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Once onions and zucchini are soft, stir in beef crumbles and quinoa. Cook another 2 minutes until everything is hot.
4. Pour in tomato mixture and cook until it has thickened, 3-5 minutes.
5. Serve on hamburger buns. Leftover filling keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 days.