Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

Vegetarian (and Vegan!) Sloppy Joes made with lentils, mushrooms, carrots, celery, and green bell pepper are so hearty and filling you’ll forget you’re not eating meat.

by the authors of The Chubby Vegetarian blog. It is filled with the most amazing and creative recipes , all of them with a distinctly southern character. There’s Vegetarian Roasted Red Pepper and Olive Muffaletta, Vegetarian Frogmore Stew, “Chicken” and Waffles, Chicken-fried Portobellos with Mushroom and Shallot Gravy. The list of recipes I want to try goes on and on.

Next I really want my daughter to cook the Chubby Vegetarian Gumbo. It should be an easy sell.

Southern food always gets a bad rap for being laden with butter and fat and heavy on the fried foods and meat. But southerners truly love their vegetables. In many ways vegetables are the heart and soul of southern cooking. So it is no wonder The Southern Vegetarian Cookbook is such a fantastic cookbook.

I thought it was strange that Madison picked Sloppy Joes as her first recipe to try from the book. I’ve never been able to get either one of my kids to eat Sloppy Joes.

But she really loved this vegetarian version and I must say I think I liked it more than a traditional meat Sloppy Joe. The lentils really make it.

She changed the recipe some, cutting it in half from 8 servings to 4 and subbing Vegetable oil for Olive oil. She also left out the 1/4 cup of white wine and the vegetable bouillon cube it called for. I would have probably used the vegetable bouillon (1/2 cube for 4 servings), but even without it, there was plenty of flavor.

BTW, Madison is insistent that I have a vegetarian section of Delepta. Look for her to be making frequent contributions. 🙂

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