Healthy Sloppy Joes

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These are the best healthy sloppy Joes. Saucy and filled with flavour this homemade sloppy Joe recipe is made without ketchup, without wine, and without brown sugar and is filled with hidden veggies to make it a healthy version of the classic recipe we all know and love. Easy to make in just one pan this is the perfect quick and easy meal.

Sloppy joe's being served in a potato bun garnished with fresh parsley.

Why you will love this recipe:

These sloppy Joe's are so good! They taste just like traditional homestyle sloppy Joes and have the most delicious richly flavoured sauce.
This homemade sloppy Joe recipe is quick and easy to make and is ready in less than 30 minutes!
These sloppy Joes are made without ketchup, without wine and without brown sugar.
They are made in one pan so the clean up is so simple and easy.
This recipe is perfect for meal prep, makes great leftovers, and also freezes really well.
It is loaded with veggies to make a complete, healthy meal.
These bunless sloppy Joes can be served using a white potato bun, sweet potato bun, as is or you can turn them into sloppy Joe bowls too!
This recipe is not only healthy but it is also Whole30, paleo, gluten free and dairy free.

Taste and texture:

These sloppy joe's have the most amazing flavour! They are rich, hearty and perfectly seasoned. The dates add the perfect amount of natural sweetness to the sloppy Joe sauce and the ground beef and chopped vegetables give this recipe the best chunky texture.

Key ingredients and substitutions:

Ground beef - ground beef is my favourite meat for making sloppy joes. I prefer using grass fed and grass finished ground beef but you can use any type of ground beef that you like including lean ground beef. You could easily swap this for ground turkey, ground chicken or any other ground meat.
Vegetables - I use sweet bell peppers and onions to give this recipe the most amazing flavour and color profile.
Canned chopped or diced tomatoes: these form the base of the sauce. A sloppy Joe just isn't a sloppy Joe without tomatoes!
Tomato paste - this helps the sauce thicken when it cooks.
Coconut aminos: to help give this homemade sauce the perfect flavour.
Coconut vinegar: this is one of my favourite types of vinegar! It has such a unique flavour. You could easily use apple cider vinegar instead.
Dates: to give the sloppy Joe sauce the perfect amount of sweetness, without any refined sugar or ketchup!
Spices: sea salt, ground black pepper, parsley, mustard powder and smoked paprika. These blend perfectly to give this sauce the best flavour.

How to make this recipe:

Step one:

To make the sauce, add all the sauce ingredients to your Vitamix or other high speed blender and blend the ingredients well until they are smooth.

Step two:

To make the beef and vegetables, place a large pan on the stove on medium heat and add the coconut oil to the pan and let it melt.

Step three:

Next, add the chopped green onion and chopped bell peppers to the pan and sauté for a couple minutes.

Step four:

Then add the ground beef to the pan and cook it until it’s no longer pink.

Step five:

Next, add the sauce to the pan and mix well to combine all the ingredients. Then turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes (until it reaches the thickness you like). Then serve and enjoy!

Step by step directions for making Whole30 and paleo sloppy Joe's in a pan on the stovetop.

Variations and add ins:

Instead of using ground beef feel free to use ground bison, ground turkey, or ground chicken to make these sloppy Joes.
If you don't have coconut vinegar you can use apple cider vinegar instead.
Instead of green onion you could use a medium white onion.
You could make the sauce with honey instead of dates (note that honey wouldn't be Whole30 compliant).
You could add other vegetables such as carrots or celery.
Instead of smoked paprika you could use paprika instead.

Tips and tricks:

To serve these sloppy Joes you can eat them plain, serve them in a potato bun or a sweet potato bun, or turn them into sloppy Joe bowls.
This recipe also freezes really well – I love freezing them in my Souper Cubes to make perfectly sized portions that can easily be reheated anytime you need a quick meal. You can freeze it for up to 3 months.
If you are serving a crowd feel free to double or triple this recipe.

How to serve:

Serve these sloppy joes plain and just eat the sauce as it is.
You can serve sloppy joe's in a hotdog bun or hamburger bun.
If you prefer to make these bunless, you can serve them in potato buns or sweet potato buns.
Serve sloppy joes over rice, cauliflower rice, noodles, vegetable noodles or veggie rice.
I love pairing this recipe with cornbread muffins or biscuits.
You can turn them into sloppy Joe bowls (see the instructions below).

To make these into sloppy Joe bowls:

You can easily turn these into sloppy Joe bowls by topping your favourite cooked veggies with the sloppy Joe sauce from this recipe. Some of my favourite veggies to use are cauliflower rice, broccoli, spaghetti squash and zucchini noodles.

How to store:

Store any leftovers in the fridge in an air tight container for up to 5 days. This recipe also freezes really well for up to 3 months.

A pan of healthy sloppy Joe's garnished with fresh parsley.

Frequently asked questions:

Why are they called Sloppy Joes?

A quick google search told me that the reason they are called sloppy joes is that a cook named Joe at Floyd Angell's café in Sioux City Iowa added tomato sauce to his “loose meat" sandwiches and the “sloppy joe" sandwich was created.

What sides go with sloppy joes?

I love pairing sloppy joes with cooked broccoli, cooked cauliflower, a side salad or chopped raw vegetables. If you don't use a potato bun or a sweet potato bun you could also add the sloppy Joe sauce to cauliflower rice or white rice (if you aren't on the paleo or Whole30 diets). You could also use my paleo bread recipe instead of a sweet potato or potato bun to create a sloppy Joe sandwich.

How do you make a sweet potato bun or white potato bun?

All you need to do is bake your potatoes, then slice them in half and fill them with the sloppy Joe sauce. Note that technically white potatoes are not paleo, so if you are following a strict paleo diet then you will need to use a sweet potato bun (white potatoes are allowed on the Whole30 diet).

What is the difference between a sloppy Joe and a manwich?

Manwich is a brand of pre-made sloppy Joe sauce that is made by Hunt’s. You can buy canned manwich sauce at grocery stores or you could make your own homemade sloppy Joe sauce instead.

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