Tofu Tuesday - Veggie Sloppy Joe's

Talk about great timing. I just decided to start eating more vegetarian food again. As some of you already know (and are sick of hearing) I was a vegetarian for many years before I had my first daughter. While I was pregnant with her I started eating chicken again because I was a very unhealthy vegetarian, and I thought I really needed to eat something other than meat-free junk food. I've been eating chicken ever since (that's 6 years now), but I never did start eating cows or pigs again (I just can't eat them - they are too cute. Isn't that the worst reason ever?). So, I just started blogging about my "Meatless Meals" and I went hopping around the web looking for other veggie-friendly-idea-filled sites. That's when I found Kelli at Gohn Crazy and Kaci at Ellyphant, the hosts of Tofu Tuesday. Cool! Glad to meat ya' ladies. ha ha ha. (No, I haven't been into the green beer).

So, I'm happy to present to you my first dish for Tofu Tuesday - Veggie Sloppy Joe's.*

Shopping List:

1 tbsp canola oil

1 lrg. onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp chili powder

2 8-oz. packages of Tempeh

1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes, with their juice

1/4 cup ketchup

1 tsp veggie Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves and stems

Hot sauce to taste

salt and pepper

6 toasted bulky rolls

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, heat the canola oil over med. heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 7 minutes. Add the bell peppers, garlic, and chili powder, and cook for 2 minutes more.


2. Crumble the tempeh into the pan (it will crumble more as it cooks, with the help of a wooden spoon). Add the tomatoes, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, and 1 cup water and mix well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until heated through and the flavours are well blended, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.


3. Stir in the cilantro and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over toasted bulky rolls.

Note: The sloppy joe mixture can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Re-heat in the microwave or on the stove.

Verdicts:

Dave and the girls really liked it. Jamie actually gobbled hers up. Dave kept saying "It's really good", but I wasn't sure if he was teasing (he is practically a carnivore), but he said, "No. Really. It's really good. I'd eat this again for sure".

Ironically, I wasn't as big a fan. I'm just not that fond of stuff in tomato sauce. I don't know why because I really like fresh tomatoes and I even like tomato soup - but I just don't love tomato sauce -- and this is very tomato sauc-y. That was my only problem with it, though, and I did still eat it all.

Other notes: it has been very hard to find Tempeh! I haven't been able to find it in any grocery store and I couldn't even get it at the Asian market. I got some, finally, at The Horn of Plenty but one of the two packages they sold me was expired. They also sold me an expired (by a YEAR) package of Seiten. Not to mention, I got a parking ticket for getting back to the truck literally 6 minutes late. I think the ticket guy must have just been standing there waiting for the time to run out.

But, anyway...!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone and

have a Terrific Tofu Tuesday!

*recipe from Didi Emmons book, "Entertaining for a Veggie Planet".

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy