Who knew that pantry staples (ketchup, mustard, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce) would make such a lovely sloppy joes sauce?
What are sloppy joes?
Sloppy joes is a dish made with ground beef cooked with a tomato-based sauce. It is served primarily on some type of burger bun or other bread as a sandwich. It’s incredibly messy to eat, hence the name.
Sloppy joes are something that my husband enjoyed growing up made with that all-familiar canned sloppy joes sauce that your family may have kept in the pantry when you were a kid. It’s beefy, saucy, and I can imagine it was an easy weeknight dinner for any busy parent to slap together. For some reason it wasn’t something that my family regularly made when I was a child so it took a while to replicate the sloppy joe sauce in a homemade recipe.
My family would just want me to go back to the store-bought sloppy joe sauce. But sloppy joe sauce was just never on my radar when I was at the store. Whenever it was suggested for dinner, I would not have time to go to the store to make a special trip to get it. After honing my cooking skills as a mom, I finally trusted my gut and my own tastebuds to create this lighter sloppy joes recipe made with condiments and sauces already in your pantry.
Health Benefits: Making Your Own Sauce
Making sauces at home is healthier than buying many of the sauces you see in the grocery store. There are many additives and chemicals to give food a long shelf life (a little more necessary for Hawaii for hurricane prep, but maybe shouldn’t be eaten daily). On top of that, you are helping to curb food waste by using up all of the condiments and seasonings that you have piling up at your house. I know we’re not the only one stock-piling every packet of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and soy sauce (shoyu)!
Health Benefits: Ground Beef
Ground beef is important for keeping your blood healthy (iron), building muscle, and keeping your brain healthy. Where beef becomes a challenge is often in how much we eat and the fat content. This recipe calls for 90/10 ground beef (90% beef, 10% fat). If your budget doesn’t allow for this and you get something like 85/15 or 80/20, I suggest browning your meat first, draining it on several paper towels, then cooking the vegetables. Add the meat back in when the veggies are soft enough to your liking then add the beef back into the pan with the sauce. This helps to get out some of the extra saturated fat in ground beef with higher fat content.
Balancing Ground Beef and Other Protein Sources
Now, make sure that you don’t eat ground beef every day. Scientific studies out there show that eating it more than a few times a week could increase your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and certain types of cancer. It might also impact your bone, kidney, and colon health if you eat too much meat. Try to stick to a few servings a week.
I know it can be hard to limit ground beef with the kiddos since they just love ground beef. Try swapping out ground beef with ground turkey in some of your recipes. I find it is much moister than ground chicken and is easily adaptable to any recipe calling for ground beef.
Ground turkey also works great in this recipe. You will feel good knowing that you are reducing food waste with this pantry staple-friendly recipe. Try it and please let me know what you think!
If you need other fast dinner recipe ideas, check out these other easy recipes:
Healthier Sloppy Joes (with Pantry Staples)
Equipment
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 large cutting board
- 1 10" saute pan
- 1 small bowl
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 1 green bell pepper finely diced
- 1 celery rib finely diced
- 5 garlic cloves finely diced
- ¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 pound ground beef
- ⅛ tsp salt (only if using no salt added tomato sauce)
- ½ tsp cumin
- 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce no salt added
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp mustard
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce low salt version
Instructions
- Heat pan on medium high heat. Add canola oil and heat for 30 seconds. Add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and black pepper to the pan and cook for 5 to 6 minutes until they start to soften, stirring occasionally.
- Add ground beef, salt (if using) and cumin. Break up beef into small pieces and cook for another 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients to the pan and cook for 3 to 5 minutes depending on how soft you want your vegetables.
- Serve with your favorite buns or mini slider buns. Whole wheat and sweet bread are some favorites. Mini hoagie rolls would taste great, too.
