When my parents went out of town, they left us with their perishables. That was great, but it also turned our kitchen into an episode of Chopped. What can you make with one onion, one garlic, one green pepper that will feed two people for dinner. Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes.

This is actually the perfect recipe for when you have one onion and one green pepper. The vegetables get dispersed through the recipe, so everyone gets a lot — even though you didn’t start with a lot.

Traditionally, Sloppy Joes use ground beef. So if you’re used to that traditional recipe, you might be a little surprised to know that this one doesn’t. But trust me. You won’t even be saying, “Where’s the beef?”

Ground turkey is super delicious, a great alternative to ground beef, and (in our stores) a lot cheaper than ground beef too. And honestly, in this recipe, there’s so much flavor and seasoning, you want something like turkey that’s more mild flavored than beef. You’re going through all the work of building the sauce, you definitely want it to be the star.

Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes

This Sloppy Joes recipe includes the ingredients to build the Sloppy Joe sauce. If you’re pressed on time, you can purchase Sloppy Joe seasoning mix and skip all the ingredients on the list below that fall between ketchup and ground pepper (including those two ingredients). Although honestly, once you realize how easy it is to build your own Sloppy Joe sauce, you won’t be going back to any packets.

What You’ll Need:

• 16 oz. ground turkey
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2/3 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons chili paste
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• Olive oil
• 8 hamburger buns

What You’ll Do:

Finely chop your garlic and add it to a saute pan with olive oil. Cook about one minute.

Dice your onions small and add them to the garlic.

Dice your green peppers and add them to the pan as well. Cook about ten minutes until the onions start to get translucent.

Add the ground turkey to the pan and cook it through, about ten minutes. Make sure to break up the ground turkey into crumbles as it is cooking.

Now it’s time to build your sauce.

Add the ketchup, water, chili paste, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt, and ground pepper to the pan. Stir until everything is combined. Allow the sauce to cook down and thicken, at least five minutes.

Toast your hamburger buns, then scoop the Sloppy Joe mixture onto the bun. About a half cup of mixture will give you the “sloppy” version of Sloppy Joes.

Tips For Making Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes

– Chop your onion and pepper small, but not too small. You want it to have a little integrity when you’re eating these Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes, but you don’t want them so big that they are overpowering. Pieces that are 1/8 of an inch by 1/4 of an inch are perfect.

– The Sloppy Joe sauce is a little sweet because of the ketchup and brown sugar. I think it’s perfect that way, but if you want something a little less sweet, cut down on the brown sugar. I wouldn’t eliminate it completely, but cutting it in half would be fine.

– While you’re cooking the ground turkey, be sure to break it into pieces. Most ground turkey will either come as a ground turkey roll or as a large block. As it starts to cook, use a bamboo spatula to break it into small pieces. If you don’t do this as soon as it starts to cook, you’ll end up with pieces that are too large and will ruin the texture of the Sloppy Joe.

Ground Turkey Sloppy Joe Recipe Substitutions

– If you don’t have ground turkey, you can substitute one pound of ground chicken instead. The mildness of ground chicken is similar to the mildness of ground turkey.

– If poultry is not your thing, you can use ground beef. That’s actually the traditional way of making Sloppy Joes. If you use ground beef in your Sloppy Joe recipe, you’ll want to tweak the recipe a little. Instead of cooking the ground beef in the pan with the vegetables, cook it separately first so you can drain the juices left behind. When the vegetables have cooked about twenty minutes and are done, add the ground beef back into the pan. Then, build the sauce.

– Green peppers are perfect in this Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes because of how mild they are. I keep saying that, but you really want the Sloppy Joe sauce to stand out. You are going through the work of making a sauce, not just opening a packet, so everything else needs to be mild. Even though red peppers are my favorite, I wouldn’t use them in this recipe because they have a stronger, sweet taste. If all you have is a red pepper, though, it’s fine. It’s better to have a red or yellow pepper in this than skip the pepper altogether.

– If you don’t like peppers, you can substitute finely chopped carrots for the bell pepper. Your cooking time may be a little longer with carrots since they start stiffer than bell peppers. Carrots have an inherent sweetness to them, so you may need to lessen the sugar. Build the sauce without the sugar, try a bite with a carrot, and then decide if it needs the full amount of sugar or not.

– Chili paste is so good. It adds a little bit of heat to cut through the sugar, but it doesn’t set your mouth on fire. If you don’t want to use chili paste, though, you can use tomato paste instead. Tomato paste is the traditional way of making Sloppy Joes, but I had to have a couple twists in my recipe. The recipe will be a little sweeter with the tomato paste, so a few red pepper flakes would be a great addition.

What To Serve With Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes

– Homemade Waffle Fries
– Side Salad