It Frugal Fridays! This is our frugal and nutritious (F & N) meal of the week! This is a variation to sloppy joes without the meat, and is actually quite good! Served on a sprouted wheat bun (I haven’t had success making my own buns yet…), topped with raw cheddar cheese and peas and corn on the side! Yum! We are eating lentils once a week now and it is a great way to save money on the food budget, cutting back on meat while still eating healthy!
3 cups water
1 cup lentils, rinsed
salt to taste (optional)
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
3-5 tablespoons rapadura, molasses, or honey
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1-2 Tbsp barbecue sauce
salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 hamburger buns, split
Soaking Step (for benefits read here), optional: Allow lentils to soak over night in warm filtered water with 2 Tbsp acid medium. Rinse and cook as described below.
Combine water and lentils in a saucepan; season to taste with salt if desired. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, cook onions with the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the onions have softened and turned translucent, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, ketchup, mustard powder, chili powder, molasses and Worcestershire sauce; simmer 5 to10 minutes until thickened.
Drain lentils and reserve cooking liquid. Stir lentils into sauce mixture, adding cooking liquid or water as needed to obtain the desired “sloppy joe” consistency. Serve on buns.
Original recipe from Allrecipes.com with some variations by me!
Related Posts
- Menu Plan - October 6-12
- Make it Yourself: Ketchup!
- Spicy Lentil Soup
- Tips for Eating Nutritionally on A Budget
Mmm! Looks good. As a bonus, I think I have all of these ingredients in my kitchen. Yay! Now, If it weren’t for the overnight soaking, this would be a perfect last minute meal. I’ll just have to re-define “last minute meal planning” to the night before instead of thirty minutes before!
Thanks for sharing that! Sounds yummy…I’m looking forward to trying it.
That sounds really good–we use a lot of lentils and I am trying to come up with a good bean and lentil burger. Too bad we can’t use tomato–vitamin C powder works well as a replacement but not nearly so good or so red.
Looks good Lindsay! I’ll have to watch more closely and see if any of these wonderful things show up at the Shared Meals…;)
This looks so good! I will try this soon; we are starting to replace lentils for meat too and like you; I haven’t been too succesful in the bun-making area. They keep turning out like weird little bagels someone forgot to put a hole in
Thanks, it looks good!
What kind of lentils do you use for this recipe? They don’t look like red lentils to me. Thanks!
I used brown lentils, but I am sure any would work.
Thanks, Lindsay! I’ll have to go get some brown lentils. I only have red ones around the house, and I really don’t think they would work because red lentils virtually disintegrate during cooking.
These sound so great! I’m going to have to give these a try next week or so. DH always said he hated lentils, until one time I snuck them in and he didn’t even notice. He finally admitted he’d never really eaten them…lol! Now he’ll eat lentils without any problem! Thanks for the recipe!
These were delicious! Thanks for sharing. I tweaked the recipe- since we’re in temporary housing I didn’t want to buy a lot of stuff so I just got a packet of sloppy joe mix (it said there was no MSG). My meat and potatoes husband even liked them.
I plan on remaking the leftovers and use the topping on baked potatoes.
Hey that looks good ! I must try it someday! maybe I add some bacon …… ( not )
turkey bacon rocks! It’s a must to microwave it. frying is a big no no in our home lol. some people bake their bacon tho.
The first time I made this recipe, I didn’t soak the lentils overnight, just for 30 min. before cooking them. The stayed intact and were very good. This time, I planned ahead and soaked them for about 16 hours, and when they cooked they seperated from the hulls and so now it’s like mushy lentils with skins. I’m sure you always soak yours overnight, so is that normal? They taste fine, but aren’t much for presentation. Any suggestions?
Also, how on earth do you find the time to fit it all in? How do you enjoy your family, clean your home, cook such enormously nutritious meals, research everything, blog, etc., etc. I just can’t imagine how you do it without burning out. I can barely keep up with the basics, and I feel stressed ALL THE TIME. Any tips?
I have found that the lentils tend to get mushy pretty regularly…but then again, they don’t look all that appealing in the first place!
I think the problem is that you may have cooked them too long. When they soak they absorb a lot of the soaking water, and thus are already getting soft and won’t need to cook as long as regular.
As to your question about fitting it all in, that has been the purpose of my simplifying series on Wednesdays (view past posts here)…I hope to convey little steps towards simplifying your life to focus on the priorities without other things becoming too time consuming. I have found that a little organization plan to keep the household maintained, not having too much stuff to maintain in the first place, and keeping a basic schedule help me out…plus most importantly, seasoning every day with prayer and time in the Word. God’s grace is the only thing that can sustain me…and yes, I have my burn out days! But it is on such a day that I try to take the time to step back, re-evaluate, and see what needs to go!
Blessings upon you!
I made this tonight but altered the recipe a bit. I was out of dry lentils and time, so had to use tinned. It is delish! Thank you!
People in the Indian subcontinent eat lentils on almost a daily basis because it is neither practical nor economical to consume large quantities of meat in India. In addition, many indians are vegetarians too. There are so many different types of lentils available here. You can take some recipes from here (many are nearly spiceless)and westernize them.
Thanks for the delicious recipe. I am telling all my friends about it. I really like your website too, all the articles etc. I’ve bookmarked your site as one of my favorites.
I really want to make this, but lack the mustard powder. Can I use regular mustard instead? Or can I leave it out alltogether since it’s only 1 teaspoon?
thanks!
You could go either way…regular mustard would probably work just fine. It does add a little zip to the recipe and thus it is included.
Lindsey we had this for dinner tonite really good.we will have this often thanks for sharing RENA in Oregon City
This was a wonderful recipe! We had it tonite for dinner and will enjoy it again tomorrow for lunch since I made a double batch. I plan on increasing the amount of lentils slightly since it was a bit too much sauce for my hubby’s taste. But otherwise it was a huge hit! Thank you so much for taking the time to share.