Homemade Sloppy Joes With Ketchup
A busy month deserves an easy meal like my Homemade Sloppy Joes With Ketchup. Trust me when I say, this recipe is PACKED with flavor, real ingredients and will be on your table in less than 30 minutes.
This recipe is loaded with sneaky veggies and is perfect for busy weeknights or a Sunday Game Day. The whole family and even the picky eaters will love eating healthier sloppy joes!
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Original Post: December 2022 | Updated Post: February 2024.
Ingredients
- Lean ground beef. I used 90/10.
- Extra virgin olive oil.
- Sweet onion. You can also use white or yellow.
- Red and green bell peppers.
- Fresh cloves garlic.
- Organic ketchup.
- Apple cider vinegar.
- Maple syrup. For a little natural sweetness.
- Paprika.
- Dried oregano.
- Ground thyme.
- Fresh basil.
How to prepare
- Start with heating the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat.
- Add the ground beef to the skillet and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add a pinch of salt.
- Add the bell peppers, garlic and onion. Turn the heat down to low. Stir well and let it simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
- Add the spices and fresh basil and give it a stir. Then add the ketchup and apple cider vinegar. Continue to simmer for 7 minutes then remove from the heat and stir in the maple syrup.
- Serve with warm bread or buns of your choice.
Helpful tips for Homemade Sloppy Joes
As for classic sloppy joes that are made with a canned sauce such as Manwich, my version by uses clean ingredients such as lean ground beef and creating a homemade sauce.
The key ingredient to making healthy sloppy joes taste like traditional sloppy joes is to use a good organic ketchup. The ketchup I use has only these simple ingredients: Organic tomato concentrate, organic sugar, organic vinegar, salt, organic onion powder and organic spices.
Where as a regular ketchup has high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. Yup- 2 kinds of sugar! Organic or unsweetened ketchup is easy to find in your local grocery stores. There are many brands to choose from but 2 brands I have tried and suggest are Primal Kitchen and also a brand called Woodstock.
National brands such as Heinz have an organic alternative as well and also Simply, which doesn’t have artificial sweeteners. I suggest reading the nutrition information if there is a particular ingredient you are trying to avoid.
Trader Joe’s has their version as well.
Serving suggestions and alternatives
You can use any meat mixture you like such as lean ground turkey, bison or ground chicken. A good choice of lean ground beef is 90/10 or 93/7. Be sure to check the nutritional information to verify. Whichever ground meat you choose, homemade sloppy joes will get rave reviews.
If you do not have fresh garlic, you can substitute with garlic powder and you can also use avocado oil in place of olive oil. You can use yellow onion or white onion in place of sweet onion. To spice it up, you can totally add a touch of red pepper flakes or use hot sauce.
Balsamic vinegar or distilled vinegar can replace apple cider vinegar.
How to eat sloppy joes without bread
You can serve this on top of cumin sweet potatoes or regular sweet potatoes (which is delicious btw..) or on top of roasted cauliflower. My family loves Hawaiian rolls stuffed with sloppy joe filling but I like to eat mine on top of a delicious salad.
Add Your Favorite Toppings
Just because this is a healthier version of a sloppy Joe doesn’t mean it has to be boring! Some suggested toppings are a slice pepper jack cheese, cheddar cheese, cole slaw, crunchy pickles or pickled red onions.
Kitchen Tips
A food processor makes this sloppy Joe sauce one of the most easiest things to make. You can cut your onion, garlic and bell peppers in half or 4 quarters, then add them to the food processor on the “chop” setting. It saves you the extra time of dicing! Your vegetables will be ready to add to your skillet in 2-3 minutes. Another bonus is that by chopping the vegetables in the food processor, the juices are then released. Those juices make for a flavorful sauce!
Another key tip is that this sloppy joe meat can be made a day ahead. When the cooked meat sits in the juices for a long time, the spices and tomato sauce becomes scrumptious!
This is not only an easy dinner. A great way to enjoy this is in your meal prep.
Storing Homemade Sloppy Joes
To avoid soggy buns, store the sloppy Joe sauce separately in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Only serve on the buns if you are consuming them right away. You can reheat them in microwave on high for about 1-2 minutes or you can reheat on the stove top.
Let’s Get Cooking!
Looking for more delicious recipes? Check out my Easy Bison Meatloaf and also my Best Italian Stuffed Ground Turkey Zucchini Boats.
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Homemade Sloppy Joes With Ketchup
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef I used 90/10
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small sweet onion chopped
- 1 medium red bell pepper chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper chopped
- 12 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup organic ketchup
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
- 1/2 cup fresh basil chopped
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat.
- Add the ground beef and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add a pinch of salt.
- Add the bell peppers, garlic and onion. Turn heat down to low. Stir well and let it cook for an additional 15 minutes.
- Add the spices and fresh basil and give it a stir. Then add the ketchup and apple cider vinegar. Continue to simmer for 7 minutes then remove from the heat and stir in the maple syrup.
- Serve with warm bread or buns of your choice.
These sloppy joes were delicious! We ate ours with gluten free bread.