This week has been comfort food week here at the Esquivel home. We’ve had taco salad, spaghetti with marinara sauce, and last night, sloppy joes. These sandwiches are a far-cry from those mystery-meatwiches we ate in elementary school. The sauce is all homemade, with a deep, rich flavor from the sun-dried tomatoes. We gobbled the mixture up on wheat bolillos, but any Kaiser roll or hamburger bun would work just as well. And of course, we added a sprinkling of some good old Colby-jack cheese for good measure.

I don’t doubt that these would be just as yummy with 12 ounces of cooked ground beef or turkey instead of the soy crumbles, but if you’ve been looking for a way to include more vegetable protein in your diet, this might be the recipe to try.

Sloppy Joes

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed without oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (12-ounce) package frozen soy crumbles, thawed (such as Boca or Morningstar Farms)
• 6 (2-ounce) Kaiser rolls, hamburger buns, or bolillos

Combine boiling water and sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl, and let stand 5 minutes or until tomatoes are soft. Drain and chop tomatoes

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, red bell pepper, and garlic; saute 3 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, soy sauce, and the next 8 ingredients (soy sauce through crushed tomatoes). Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring the mixture occasionally. Stir in soy crumbles; cook 2 minutes or unit thoroughly heated, stirring frequently. Spoon about 2/3 cup crumbles mixture onto bottom half of each roll; top with top halves of rolls.

Makes 6 servings.

Source: Cooking Light magazine