Homemade Healthy Sloppy Joes, a quick meal updated with lots of veggies and even more flavor. Your whole family will LOVE this recipe!
You guys, I just spent the past few weeks going through every single recipe I've ever posted in anticipation of this shiny new website! It was a labor of love, for sure and I am super excited to play on my new platform and bring you even deeper into my kitchen.
I wanted to pick one of my OG recipes and breathe some new life into it for the relaunch. It did not take me long to choose my old school Smokey Joes. I LOVE this recipe for so many reasons; it is an updated classic, I've loved Sloppy Joes since I was a little girl, and I am mildly obsessed with smoked paprika. Most of all, I love how this simple recipe is a great example of my food philosophy: add more veggies to every meal NO MATTER WHAT 😉
So if you want the OG version jump on over here, but for today I bring you an updated healthy sloppy joe. It is an ode to a more traditional Sloppy Joe but still with lots of veggies. I eliminated the smoked paprika this time and focused more on classic flavors of worcestershire sauce, mustard and of course that perfect balance of tangy sweet that makes a sloppy joe so dang good.
The most important addition to this recipe though is pickles.
Because pickles.
Are you as obsessed as I am? I literally feel like all is well and right in the world if there is a jar of pickles in my fridge.
Of all my recipes my Sloppy (Smokey) Joe is most likely the recipe that has been made most, by me and my adoring fans 😉 Just kidding about the fans part, but it has been made 100's of times by clients and friends and family. Last weekend I drove to Pennsylvania to visit my sister and nephew and she had Sloppy Joes waiting for me when I got there, best sister EVER! Her twist on the recipe was the pickle addition and quite frankly it was brilliant, so obviously I stole it.
Healthy Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 large onion
- 1 large green bell pepper diced
- 1 large zucchini diced
- 5 cloves of garlic chopped
- 2 cups crushed tomato
- 1 tsp dry mustard powder
- 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250
- In a large (oven safe) saute pan over medium high heat, brown ground beef until no longer pink
- If there is a lot of residual fat from browning the beef pour off fat
- Add onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and garlic to pan. Saute together with beef for 4 minutes
- Add remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Continue cooking on stove top stirring frequently for 6 minutes.
- Remove pan from stove top and lightly tent with tin foil, transfer pan to oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven, serve on whole grain bun with pickles. Lots and lots of pickles
