Are you celebrating one of the National Food Holidays?
This recipe is a great choice for a Meatless Monday, (a public health awareness campaign promoting meatless, low-fat meals once a week as part of a goal to reduce the saturated fat in American diets by 15% by the year 2010. Even though it's meatless, it still lets you convince the kids that it's a Sloppy Joe!
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Why is it called a sloppy Joe?
"The name "sloppy" comes from the fact that eating it as if it were a normal sandwich often results in the meat and sauce spilling out. It may also be served "open face", with the bun halves or slices of bread next to each other and the meat on top of each."
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Recipe for Meatless Sloppy Joes:
Ingredients
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/3 cup carrot, shredded
• 1 can of chili beans, undrained
• 1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (you can use the boil-in-a-bag version)
• 1/4 cup hickory-smoked barbecue sauce, more or less based on your preference
Procedure
• Add olive oil to pan and heat on medium-high
• Add onions, bell pepper, and carrots and cook for 3-4 minutes
• Add rice, chili beans, and barbeque sauce and cook for approximately 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently to heat thoroughly
Serve the finished product on whole-wheat hamburger buns.
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Fun Food Facts about ingredients:
Red or Kidney Bean: "The kidney bean otherwise called 'the chilli bean' with its dark red skin is named for its visual resemblance to a kidney. The kidney bean is also known as the red bean, although this usage can cause confusion with other red beans. Red kidney beans (rājmā in Hindi and Punjabi) are an integral part of the cuisine in northern region of India. Sometimes kidney beans are used in the red beans and rice of Louisiana Creole cuisine. Other times small red beans are used. Small red beans are noticeably smaller and darker than kidney beans. They have a smoother taste and are preferred for Cajun cuisine. Small kidney beans used in La Rioja, Spain, are called Caparrones."
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Are you thinking about serving this dish at a party or a dinner?
You may also be interested in:
Check out other vegetarian recipes:
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Brown Rice: "Brown rice (or "hulled rice") is unmilled or partly milled rice, a kind of whole grain, a natural grain that remains unbleached. It has a mild nutty flavor, is chewier than white rice and becomes rancid more quickly. Any rice, including sticky rice, long-grain rice, or short-grain rice, may be eaten as brown rice."
