Turkey Sloppy Joes–Secret Recipe Club

It’s time for the Secret Recipe Club reveal day!  One of my favorite days of the month.  It’s always so fun to see who got your blog, and what they made from it.  (In case you’re not aware, the Secret Recipe Club is sort of like a Secret Santa, but with food blogs.  You get randomly assigned a blog and you choose a recipe from that blog to make, and everyone reveals their recipes on the same day.  So fun.)

This month my assigned blog was The Food of Love.  Great name, and it really fits Arlene’s blog focus.  She makes true comfort food from the heart…rustic Italian meals.  Not all of her recipes are Italian, but many of them are, and they all look fantastic.  Of course, given that I’m trying to watch my weight, I had my work cut out for me trying to pick a recipe that I could either make over into a healthy one (which I’m not always so great at), or find one that I could make as-is.

I had a few I was trying to choose from (Crispy Spicy Chicken Drumsticks, Fettucine Alfredo, and One Pan Oven-Roasted Chicken Feast) but I chose to make her Beef and Mushroom Sloppy Joes.  Why’d I choose that one?  Well, I went to the store not really knowing which one I was going to make, but when I got to the produce section, organic baby bella mushrooms were on sale for cheaper than the regular ones.  It was a sign from above that I should make this recipe.

This recipe is supposed to be 4 servings (with the 12 oz of sirloin), but my version easily made at least 6 servings.  There was a LOT of food.  Those mushrooms really stretch the ground turkey, and keep the points super low.  Oh, and can we talk about how cute those baby sweet peppers are?  Roni from Green Lite Bites sends them in her son’s lunchbox and he devours them so I had high hopes for my little guy.  No such luck.  I’ll keep trying, though!

I made a few changes from the original, so my version is below.  I substituted ground turkey (and I used a pound of it rather than the 12 oz ground sirloin her recipe calls for), and I left out the hot sauce because I’m a total sissy.  But I did add some barbeque sauce and a bit of sugar to cut the acid.  I felt like it really needed it.  Probably because I had to use balsamic vinegar instead of the red wine vinegar.  I thought I had red wine vinegar in the fridge but I was wrong.  Oops.

Turkey and Mushroom Sloppy Joes


Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 2 8-oz packages baby bella mushrooms
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 cup tomato paste
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 Tbsp barbeque sauce
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the oil, swirling to coat.  Add the ground turkey and cook until browned, making sure to crumble into small pieces.
  2. While the turkey cooks, finely chop your mushrooms.  (The original recipe suggests you put them in a food processor and pulse 10 times, but I just cut mine like the Swedish Chef.)
  3. Add the mushrooms, onion, and garlic to the turkey and cook until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the tomato paste, oregano, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce and cook about 5 minutes more, until mushrooms are tender and liquid evaporates.  Stir in salt, pepper, barbeque sauce, and sugar, all to taste.

I served this on our favorite sandwich thins, but put them in the toaster first so they didn’t get too soggy once the meat was piled on.  I’m really glad my husband suggested doing that because texture-wise it was nice to have that bit of crunch in the bread to stand up to the sloppy meat mixture.

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24 comments

  6. Jennifer

    Stopping by from group B…so fun to be in the Secret Recipe Club with you. Great Post! These sloppy joes sound great…I have a very similar recipe on my site and we love them!

    If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to drop by my blog and check out my SRC recipe this month: Avocado Omelet

    Reply
  8. ButterYum

    Big Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I love using ground turkey in these kinds of reicpes. Great recipe selection.

    I’m new to the SRC this month. I hope you’ll stop by and pay me a visit.

    :)
    ButterYum

    Reply
  10. Dan

    That looks like a great sandwich – I haven’t made sloppy anything in a while and this made me realize that I should! I even like the thin bun. More room for the sloppy filling :-)

    Reply
  11. Nicole @ the Daily Dish

    These sound super yummy and my daughter absolutely love sloppy joes. Most of the time we substitute with turkey too. This recipe looks fantastic. I also love that you served it on Sandwich thins instead of the traditional (bad for you) bun. LOL

    Reply
  16. Rhonda

    What a great alternative to regular Joe’s! I’ve been digging the ground turkey lately, I’ll have to give this a try…but I’m no wuss so the hot sauce will be a player ;)

    Reply

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