Did you know you could make vegetarian sloppy joes with lentils instead? Similar to our Old Fashioned dish but healthier and easy to make in just 30 minutes! With a rich tomato sauce you can make spicy or mild, this is a family friendly dinner we love.
If you have kids you should make our lentil Sloppy Joes Recipe with little buns! There are many options for serving once made. With guests over you can double it and keep warm in a slow cooker too. A hearty option without ground beef we love. (post may contain affiliate links present)
Sloppy Joes with Green Lentils
Timing for this vegan sloppy joes recipe is based on How Long to Cook Green Lentils on Stove here which covers all of the varieties in case you want to use black or red instead. You’ll start with boiling them to tender, drain and incorporate at the end.
When we aren’t in the mood for beef, this is a great option that tastes amazingly similar. You could make this faster too with soaked Red Lentils and our Instant Pot Sloppy Joes instructions. We used the stovetop this go around but love giving alternative options.
Notes
You are going to start with the variety that is green lentils + water or broth to boil them to tender. This cook time will vary slightly depending on how tender you would like them to be. Keep in mind that you will simmer with the sauce as well which will soften them in the following steps. You could cook Instant Pot red lentils as an alternative.
I think that olive oil is best to start to mix together the other following ingredients. You will want a pan to simmer the add-ins until fragrant before incorporating in with the lentils. Even if you choose to make slow cooker sloppy joes, you need to simmer a bit first.
You are going to add in some Onion diced (optional but great) with some small bits of Bell pepper green. Minced garlic we love in all of our dishes, jarred or it can be diced fine from fresh cloves. For heat you can add more or less red pepper flakes or chili powder works too.
Tomato sauce is used to make sauce thicker, spaghetti sauce would work too but would lend to a different flavor profile. Dijon mustard gives it a pop of zing to the flavors and Brown sugar or a bit of maple syrup could be used for the sweet element.
You could use our Not So Sloppy Joe Sauce instead of the one below which is more tomato sauce based than with ketchup.
Lentil Sloppy Joes Recipe
Equipment
- 1 pot
Ingredients
- 1 c green lentils, + water to boil them
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, green, diced
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 3 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 16 oz tomato sauce
- 3 tbsp dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Rinse lentils and add into a saucepan or pot and cover with water, making sure water is at least 2" above lentils. Heat over medium high heat boiling. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for about 25 minutes, stirring at least once, or until lentils are tender to your liking. Drain in a fine mesh strainer.
- Add oil, onion, green pepper and garlic to a skillet and heat over medium high heat until onions are translucent and green peppers are tender. Add chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper.
- Stir in tomato sauce, mustard and brown sugar and mix well. Add cooked and drained lentils and heat over medium low heat until heated through and hot.
- Serve on buns sloppy joe style.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
In Slow Cooker
You could start with the directions to cook Slow Cooker Lentils. Then drain and add in the sauce items and stir. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes. This is kinda’ a thicker version of our Lentil Stew Recipe we love too.
How to serve
I would toast the buns, then scoop the sloppy lentil joes mixture up and set on buns or on top of toast. You can certainly use gluten free products to make this as a hearty, serve inside sloppy joe egg rolls, or as Texas Toast Sloppy Joes! Jump to recipe and get started friends!!
1 pound of ground beef (cooked) yields approximately 2 cups of cooked meat. The lentil equivalent would be to use 1/2 cup of dry lentils, which yields about 1 1/2 cups cooked. For a slightly heartier texture, you can use 3/4 cup of dry, to make 2 cups cooked.
