Globecooking recipe : Sloppy Joes (USA)

At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a hamburger, but it is in fact Sloppy Joes, one of the recipes from my USA-themed Kitchen Trotter box last month. Sloppy Joes are basically a cross between chilli con carne (minus the beans) and bolognese sauce, served in a burger bun. I have made a tweaked version before - Garlic Bread Topped Sloppy Joes - but I decided to follow their recipe to the letter to see how they turned out. I was worried they would be a bit, well, sloppy to eat, and they were, but the kids loved them and it's a great way of sneaking extra veg into a hamburger type meal !

Sloppy Joes

ingredients :

600g minced beef

herbs, spices (see below)

a sprinkle of brown sugar

1tbsp Worcester sauce

500ml tomato sauce

2tbsp tomato concentrate

1 onion

1 carrot

1 green or red pepper

1/2 a celery stick

olive oil

salt, pepper

hamburger buns

Start by chopping up all the veggies. The original recipe said to use 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1/2 a stick of celery and a red or green pepper. I decided to have a clear out in the veg box of the fridge, so I used 2 carrots, 1 leek, 1 onion and a handful of mushrooms.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and gently fry the diced and sliced veggies until they are soft.

Remove from the pan and put to one side. I felt like diving in with a fork already !

In the same pan, fry the minced beef on a high heat until it goes brown.

Add the tomato sauce (I used a small jar of pizza sauce) and tomato concentrate, as well as the herbs, spices, Worcester sauce and sugar. I was supposed to have received a sachet of Sloppy Joes seasoning, made with brown sugar, salt, onion powder, paprika, Cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin, white pepper, ginger and cloves. However, it was missing in the box and I'm still waiting for it to arrive, so I just used what I had - a sprinkle of brown sugar, garlic salt, smoked paprika, sweet paprika and BBQ seasoning. 

Put the vegetables back in the pan and give it all a good stir.

Fill the burger buns with the mixture.

I served ours with twisty fries and coleslaw on the side. 

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***

Adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as it used up all the odds and ends of veggies in the fridge.