This happened and it’s delicious! As winter starts to creep in and the season is super busy, I crave more warming, comforting, and easy meals to have on hand to reheat for a quick lunch or dinner. This recipe does all of those things, plus brings back so many happy memories of having this for dinner back in the day and listening to this hilarious song from Adam Sandler? So, let’s get sloppy and make The Best Lentil Sloppy Joe; high in fiber, protein, made in 1 pot, in 20 minutes, with less than 10 ingredients.

Get Sloppy.

Lentils are one of my favorite legumes to make, partially because they’re so simple to cook and hold up well for leftovers, especially if you cook a large portion on your Batch Cooking day. Not only are lentils easy to make, they’re my favorite legume because they’re the highest in both fiber and protein per serving coming in at a whopping 11g of protein per 1 cup cooked and about 15g fiber! They’re also rich in minerals such as molybdenum, folate, copper, phosphorus, manganese, iron, zinc, potassium, and B vitamins. Hello happy digestion. If you’re not a huge fan of lentils or don’t have them on hand, then you can use other beans and legumes you love. Chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, lima beans, all of them go beautifully with this sweet and savory sauce.

The sauce is so good that you can actually make it by itself, without putting any legume in it, and use it as a sauce for proteins, for roasted vegetables, to toss in warm grains like quinoa or millet, or a dipping sauce for tempeh and tofu. Such a versatile way to enjoy this both sweet and savory “sloppy” sauce. If you take this route and make the sauce solo, I recommend storing in it in the refridgerator for up to 1 week in an airtight glass; I’d love to hear how you use this sauce if you experiment with it outside of this recipe! To serve The Best Lentil Sloppy Joe, I highly recommend making my ‘tastes like’ Rye Flaxseed Loaf I shared last week, thinly slicing it and toasting it for THE best sandwich bread to cradle the sloppy mess- and don’t worry, it’s inevitable that this gets messy, just go with it and dive in. Another option I enjoy, is to eat this open-faced on 1 slice of toasted bread with a poached egg on top and eat it with a fork, or scoop a heaping spoonful of the Lentil Sloppy Joe mixture on a bed of cooked quinoa, millet, kale, or raw greens such as a salad. There are truly so many delicious ways to enjoy this and it makes for the best leftovers!

It might look like a long list of ingredients, but most of these are spices you already have in your pantry and this recipe is literally made in 1 pot and tastes like you’ve been cooking it all day long. It takes me less than 10 minutes to throw this recipe together and I let it cook on the stove while I’m finishing baking the Rye Flaxseed Loaf or creating a salad bowl plate to scoop the sloppy joe mixture on top of- oh so good.

THOUGHTS?

What are your favorite winter comfort foods? Let me know what you think when you give this recipe a go! Leave a comment and rate it, rating helps me continue to improve recipes for you. I love seeing what you come up with so don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #nutritionstripped on Instagram!

Tis’ the season, so get ahead of it. I coach 1-1 with people like you over the world to help optimize your health, reach goals, feel and look amazing! Sign up here to chat with me about how we can work together and take the first step to make this your healthiest and happiest year yet.

xx McKel