April 29, 2012

Tempeh Sloppy Joes

For whatever reason vegetarian sloppy joes sounded like a good idea today. I searched the internet for a recipe and there are probably thousands of them. I ended up trying this one (from Lazarocooks) and it was pretty good.
If I had to change anything I'd reduce the amount of tomato sauce and maybe add some lentils or some other beans. Since it was a little too saucy I added about 2 or 3 tablespoons of instant mashed potato flakes to thicken it up a bit. So here's what I ended up with:

Ingredients

8 oz. package tempeh, finely cubed/crumbled (I used this kind)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. Sriracha
2-3 tbsp. potato flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a pan or wok on medium heat. Add onion and saute until transparent.
Add tempeh and red pepper and saute until browned a bit. 
Stir in chili powder, sriracha and garlic powder and saute a little longer.
Add in worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and tomato sauce.
Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. If it's still too saucy, stir in the potato flakes until thickened to your liking. 
Serve on kaiser buns. Makes at least 4 sandwiches.