Vegetarian Sloopy "Joe's"

My son sent me a picture earlier in the week of Sloppy Joe's he had made with a mix and using Tempeh instead of meat. He & his wife are full on vegetarians -- so they have to find lots of creative ways to eat (well, creative from my perspective) and include various forms of soy beans. I am not at the point of introducing Tempeh to my diet. :)

I never would have thought to try to make a vegetarian Sloppy joe -- it seems even more sacrilegious than making the vegetarian Hungarian goulash I made a few months ago. But, what the heck...

I took my old time favorite Sloppy Joe recipe and thought of things to replace the ground beef.  I happened to have some green lentils in my cupboard so that seemed like a good start. Then decided to add some kidney beans.  Earlier in the day, I had watch a video by a local (but well-known) Chef, Fabio Vivani, making  Cauliflower "rice" risotto.   That gave me the idea to try making some roasted cauliflower rice and add that.

For the sauce:
1/2 Onion
1  Red Pepper
2-3 cloves garlic
8 oz tomato sauce
8 oz diced tomatoes
2-3T Sugar
2-3T Worcestershire sauce.
2T Yellow mustard.

I precooked about a cup (measured dry) of lentils in a pot of boiling water with salt for about 15-20 minutes. I sauteed the onion and then the red pepper and then added the garlic. I dumped in all the rest of the ingredients along with the kidney beans.  I brought that to almost a boil and then simmered until I got the consistency I wanted.  I added my precooked lentiles and my precooked roasted cauliflower rice.  Having never made cauliflower rice, I had no idea how much to roast -- it looked like a lot when I cut it up but it wasn't much when I added it to this mix -- so next time I think I would use a whole head's worth of cauliflower (maybe I used 1/2).

I had some honey-oat white bread I had made a couple of days earlier -- toasted it, added some cheddar and then dumped a whole lot of the "sloppy joe" on it and grilled in on my griddle with butter.

I made some homemade potato chips to go with it -- after all, I never know how these vegetarian meals are going to play out so I have to make sure I've got something to fill up in, just in case!  It's usually a loaf of bread but lots of potatoes is nearly as good of a backup!

The experiment turned out well -- it's a keeper.