This plant based sloppy joes recipe is loaded with beans and veggies, slowly cooked down in a yummy homemade BBQ sauce. It’s delightfully delicious, the ultimate summer picnic food. I love a good sandwich, and this one is right up there on my favorites of comfort food. It’s something I have to make a couple of times each summer. I just crave it! I’ve also made a batch of these vegan sloppy joe beans to take camping. It was a brilliant idea, I hardly did any cooking at the campsite, and we had delicious food. Many people make vegan sloppy joes with lentils, but I like to use black eyed peas. I like that they are a little bigger and hardier beans, but lentils of course work great with BBQ. If you opt for lentils, keep in mind they require far less cooking time.
Beans, beans the magical fruit
Beans are one of the healthiest and most affordable foods you can eat. We all could use more beans in our diet! Beans do get a bad rap; we all know the children’s song, but it is only half true. If you eat a high fiber diet, beans do not make you gassy. Your body is already accustomed to adequate intakes of fiber and can process beans, no problem. It is when you are deficient in fiber that beans can cause flatulence. According to the National Institute of Health, over 95% of Americans do not meet the daily fiber intake recommendations. 95% of us need more fiber in our diets, we need more beans! It’s true that the initial adjustment to a high fiber diet can make you a little gassy, but this will pass. No pun intended. Once your body becomes accustomed to eating the recommended fiber intake, your whole digestive system will work a lot smoother. Fewer stomach aches, constipation, and bloating. Beans and fiber are a good thing; they truly are magical!
Healthy Benefits of Beans
One cup of cooked black eyed peas contains the following:
- Fiber: 11 grams
- Folate: 89% of the Daily Value (DV)
- Copper: 51% of the DV
- Thiamin: 29% of the DV
- Iron: 24% of the DV
- Phosphorus: 21% of the DV
- Magnesium: 22% of the DV
- Zinc: 20% of the DV
- Potassium: 10% of the DV
- Vitamin B6: 10% of the DV
- Selenium: 8% of the DV
- Riboflavin: 7% of the DV
Eating beans provides many health benefits, they promote digestive health, enhance heart health, and supporting a healthy weight. Beans are the foundation of a healthy plant based diet.
A 2023 study found that American adults who consume legumes, including black-eyed peas, in their diets have significantly less 10-year weight gain than their counterparts, as well as lower body mass indices (BMI) and leaner waists. Eating legumes is associated with successful weight control in adults.
Budget Friendly Beans
To produce 1 kg of protein from kidney beans required approximately eighteen times less land, ten times less water, nine times less fuel, twelve times less fertilizer and ten times less pesticide in comparison to producing 1 kg of protein from beef. Compared with producing 1 kg of protein from chicken and eggs, beef generated five to six times more waste (manure) to produce 1 kg of protein.
We eat a mostly vegetarian diet and our goal is to eat beans at every meal. This doesn’t always happen, we find it hard to sneak in beans for breakfast, unless having breakfast burritos. Eating lots of beans provides us with plenty of protein, lots of fiber and other nutrients, all while keeping our food costs down.
How to Make Meatless Sloppy Joes
I like to cook beans in my Instant Pot, mostly because they cook so much faster than on the stove, but either option creates delicious beans. I like to use dried beans in this recipe because they are so much more flavorful than canned beans. Don’t get me wrong, we eat a lot of canned beans, but when beans are the centerpiece of dinner you want them to be as delicious and flavorful as possible. Plus, dried beans are so much cheaper! They do however take longer to cook, but I love that they are very hands off cooking. Set them and go!
Lots of people swear by soaking beans, but I’m a minimalist and don’t like to do unnecessary steps. You are welcome to soak beans if you like, but it is not necessary. See this great article from Epicurious about debunking bean myths.
To start cooking the beans, toss the olive oil and chopped onion in the Instant Pot and sauté for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and begins to brown. Next add the bell peppers, and garlic, cook for an additional 5 minutes. Stirring regularly to avoid burning. Then add all the remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot: beans, tomato sauce, apple cider vinegar, molasses, cumin, coriander, chili powder, oregano, salt, water and cayenne pepper. Set to the “beans” pressure cooking setting and cook for 45 minutes. That’s it!
We like to serve these meatless sloppy joes on homemade pretzel buns, with cabbage slaw and dill pickle slices. Yum!
Stovetop Cooking
To cook these on the stove, double the water to 8 cups and cook them without a lid. This will slowly cook down the sauce and make the most flavorful beans! Cook time for stovetop beans is 2 hours on a simmer.
Vegan Sloppy Joes
Delicious meatless sloppy joes recipe made with black eyed peas and homemade BBQ sauce. Make on the stove or Instant Pot. Yum!
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
- Category: Plant based
- Method: Healthy
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 red pepper chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cups dried black eyed peas
- 14oz can tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1.5 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 cups of water
- Pinch of cayenne pepper, more if you prefer spicy
- pretzel buns
- Cabbage slaw
- Pickles
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to the Instant Pot and set it to sauté on high. Add the diced onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid burning.
- Add the diced red and green peppers and garlic to the Instant Pot. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot: black eyed peas, tomato sauce, apple cider vinegar, molasses, cumin, coriander, chili powder, oregano, salt, water, and cayenne pepper. Stir to combine all ingredients. Then set the Instant Pot to the Beans setting, 45 minutes of cook time.
- Once cooked, let the beans cook for about 15 minutes with the lid off. The sauce will thicken up a little. If you want it thicker, use an immersion blender and blend some of the beans into the sauce.
- Serve on homemade pretzel buns with cabbage slaw and pickles.
Notes
You can always add more spice at the end of cooking. If you get a burning error during cooking add more water.
For stovetop method. Cook the beans for 2 hours uncovered. Double the amount of water to 8 cups.
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