Turkey Sloppy Joes
Sunday, September 19th, 2010Sloppy Joes are something that I never think of to make, but I absolutely love to eat. It is probably best that I only eat these once every few months, because I might tire of eating them and then I wouldn’t be excited to make or eat them, and that would just be sad. I have made them enough times to be able to tweak recipes until they have satisfied both mine and Tommy’s food-snobbery. I took this recipe and ended up with just a few changes to make what I would consider the tastiest sloppy joe.
I like using ground turkey because, for some reason, it makes me feel like I’m making the recipe healthier than by using ground beef. Also, whenever Tommy sees ground beef cooking in a pan, he gets grossed out. I think that ground turkey cooking in a pan looks the same, but somehow the turkey doesn’t gross him out. At some point (I think it was an accident), Tommy and I realized that we really like the addition of beans in our sloppy joes (kidney and pinto work best). And I also use the same amount of vegetables in the recipe, but only use about half of the amount of ground turkey (because you can only buy them in ~1.25-lb packages at the store). I like having more vegetables than meat. So here’s the Vernieri Family sloppy Joe recipe. We eat them on hamburger buns, with a thick slice of cheddar.
Sloppy Joes, Vernieri-style
Ingredients
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 lb ground turkey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 (14-oz) can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Preparation
1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat until hot, then sauté onion, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic, stirring occasionally, until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.
2. Add turkey and sauté, stirring occasionally and breaking up large lumps with a wooden spoon, until meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper.
3. Purée tomatoes with juice, ketchup, molasses, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce in a blender until smooth.
4. Add the tomato mixture and beans to the turkey and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Serve with hamburger buns and a thick slice of cheddar.







