Saturday, May 4, 2013

My LS Sloppy Joes Recipe

I went searching online for a low sodium Sloppy Joe Sauce recipe.
Most of them I found called for using low sodium Ketchup and a full cup of it at that.
Yah......about that.

Why would I use over half of the small 14 oz. bottle of my LS ketchup, which cost over $3, to make this sauce?
So I used tomato paste and just added or increased the other ingredients that are in ketchup into the recipe.
This first batch was trial and error but I think I have come up with a pretty good sauce.
It's a lot less sweet than the stuff you buy in the can or in the dry mix packets.

Here it is.....

Low Sodium Sloppy Joe Sauce
makes 8-12 servings depending on how saucy you like your Joes

1 6oz. can tomato paste
1 6oz of water(use empty paste can to measure)
1 tsp. garlic, minced
4 TB. brown sugar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce(or use reduced sodium version to save 20mg of sodium)
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. cumin(you can substitute cilantro double the amount)

Brown your meat and onions and/or other veggies you put in your Joes.
Add all ingredients above and mix well.
Wait 5 minutes until hot and serve.

I plan on making up a double or triple batch next time to freeze into meal sized portions so this can be a quick and easy dish that Hubs and the kids can make without having me around.

The sodium savings?
Reg. ketchup=160mg in 1 TB vs. LS ketchup=25mg in 1 TB.

If you used 1 cup of reg. ketchup(as the original recipe called for), your sauce would contain 2,560mg of sodium(or about 256mg per serving)from the ketchup.
My recipe is approx. 400mg of sodium(or about 40mg per serving)from the ketchup.
(There is an additional 65mg of sodium from the Worcestershire Sauce too.)

And here is the finished product.....

 
 
 
 Don't know if you can see the onions, grated carrot and yellow, red & orange bell pepper  I put into the meat mix of ground beef and turkey.

Here's my plate before I dug in.....



Sluggy

8 comments:

  1. Hi Sluggy,
    Your recipe looks good. Here's a "mix" that you make up and store in a jar in your pantry. It is used to season spaghetti sauce or can be used to make sloppy joes. http://umaine.edu/publications/4029e/recipes-6/

    While it does have salt, I am certain you could reduce it significantly.

    HTH!
    Carol in CT

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Carol. I've perused the UMaine site before and used some of their mixes before.
    I'd have to leave out all the salt on that one though. 2 tsp. salt would add 4,800mg of sodium. Then add the amount of tomato paste you'd need to make the sauce(6 oz=12 TB)and paste has at least 20mg per sodium in it(some brands are much higher), and that's another 240mg sodium=5,040mg divided by 8 servings=630mg of sodium in 1 serving for that sauce. That's a third of my daily intake.
    Yikes! lolz
    Low sodium is definitely not frugal....

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you cut waaaay back on the salt until it is within your parameters, you might not be able to tell the difference. If something calls for a Tbsp of salt, I might just put in 1 tsp or one sixth of the amount in the recipe. My very good, picky taste buds never noticed after awhile. Of course, you could manage, but family might object. I am wondering how much sodium I just had in the chocolate chips I ate out of hand.

    When I decided to seriously decided to lose weight and get more healthy, I reserved sodium and fat intake to the point I could have chocolate everyday. Salt my beans? No, thank you; I am having chocolate later.

    Maybe you can publish a cookbook with your recipes and ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Sluggy

    These recipes might be helpful:
    http://paleodietlifestyle.com/homemade-paleo-condiments/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sluggy
    Omit the salt, so that would bring the sodium down to just whatever in in the tomato paste, so 240 mg/8 servings would be 30 mg/serving-right?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This looks so good, it is making my mouth water. I am going to try this very, very soon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh yum, it sounds delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That does look good! For some reason, I've been wanting to try something with ground beef for a while...

    ReplyDelete

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