Portabella Veggie Joes

I've always disliked "sloppy joes."  Aside from what processed salted rubbish you might buy in a can (aka liquid nitrogen), I even snubbed my nose at homemade meat-based joes - partly because they are called "sloppy" and partly because no part of what you consume looks like it is meant to be ingested by a human.

I held this air of snobbery until I tried a coworker's recipe for "vegan sloppy joes." I'll admit, I was very skeptical at first. Mushrooms / Tomato paste / Worcestershire sauce? Given that I've recently held the philosophy "you shouldn't judge your potential dinner from its picture, or ingredient list" I decided to dive in head first.  After all, in the last week I've tried vegan oats and parsnip fries and told so many people about my delights I thought I should start wearing a sign that said:

(picture compliments of my blogger friend Alex). If parsnip fries blissed me out, I decided to maintain the same "just do it" attitude.

Off I went to find my large skillet.  And here's what resulted 15 minutes later. Absolutely delicious.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

1 medium yellow onion
1 red/yellow/orange bell pepper
3 portabella mushrooms (scrape out black gills)
1 cup white button mushrooms
1 garlic clove
2 tbs olive oil
8 oz tomato sauce
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

 Steps:

1. Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a large non-stick skillet
2. Dice onion, pepper, and garlic until they become soft (about 8 min)
3. Dice mushrooms and add to sauteed vegetables
4. Add remaining tbs olive oil, tomato sauce, paste, and Worcestershire sauce
5. Spoon over whole grain bun and try not to inhale too quickly

Pair with sweet potato fries (incredibly easy to make). Peel sweet potato (or however many you like) and cut into fry-sized strips.  Coat with olive oil, salt, and put on baking sheet (place aluminum foil down first if you like easy clean up) and bake for 35 min @ 400 degrees.