Gluten Free and Vegan Sloppy Joes Recipe with a Side of Fresh Corn Salad

GF, vegetarian sloppy joes with raw corn salsa salad

I'm not a fan of most of the fake meats out there, so when it comes to serving traditional summer fare to vegetarians, I have found that mushrooms and walnuts are the best homemade meat replacement. With no processing except what you do yourself in your own food processor or with a knife, you can be sure that the ingredients of these Sloppy Joes are in the form that your body was meant to enjoy them!

I was extra excited to make these gluten free Sloppy Joes because I had just received a package of Rudi's Multigrain Gluten Free Hamburger Buns in the mail as a thank you for entering a recipe contest they held a while back. These were the best gluten free buns I have ever had! They held together well (I know - it's shocking when gluten free breads don't crumble apart in your hand after the first bite!) - and the honey and seeds made the bread actually taste good too! Plus I like their motto, which is a great one to eat by: "Made with stuff you can pronounce and ingredients you recognize."

Rudi's gluten free buns would be appropriate for serving vegetarians (I actually didn't feed this to Brian yet, but I served it to my vegetarian sister Trina), but they are not vegan because they have egg and honey for that matter. So if you are serving a vegan, just sub in some vegan bread. Enough about dietary accomodations...let's get to the real deal:

Gluten Free, Vegetarian Sloppy Joes Recipe

Vegetarian Sloppy Joe's on Rudi's Gluten Free Hamburger Buns

Ingredients
1 cup of raw walnuts soaked for at least an hour (this will soften them up to give a more meat-like chewy texture, as well as make them more digestible)
2 portabello mushrooms or 2 cups of white mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper
2 tbs diced onion
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp chili powder
1 small can of organic tomato paste
1 can of organic tomato sauce
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Clean the mushrooms and drain the walnuts. Place walnuts in the blender and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped. Then add in the mushrooms, chili powder, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Pulse until coarsely chopped to about the size of ground beef.
In a medium sized saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat and saute the minced garlic and chopped onion for about 2 minutes.
Add in mushroom and walnut mixture and stir in the tomato paste and sauce. Heat on low to low-medium heat for 10 minutes or until warmed through.
Serve on some delicious gluten free bread, or a collard green or lettuce wrap, or all on its own with a fork!

This is a great gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian recipe for a summer bbq! And you can feel better about eating these rather than those Sloppy Joe's the lunch lady serves on that old Chris Farley and Adam Sandler SNL skit...although that one is a classic...

Featured on My Sweet & Savory Meatless Mondays and Make a Food "e" Friend Mondays