FaceOff: Clogger vs UnClogged

Quote du Jour
  You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself
  any direction you choose ~ Dr. Seuss

Challenge: Delete cholesterol from daily home-cooking but retain deliciousness

Since the source of dietary cholesterol is animal products - meat, eggs and dairy - and plant-based ingredients have none, here's the first of several strategies to help you review long-time family favorite recipes and revise them to be plant-based while retaining all the delicious excellence that made your recipes favorites in the first place.

VeggieBound Language
Since cholesterol clogs the arteries, (similar to plumbing being clogged with, well, use your imagination!) I started to call old family favorite recipes that include animal-products, Cloggers. Revised recipes, using only plant-based ingredients, are UnClogged. 

    Clogger = recipe includes animal-based ingredients
    UnClogged = only plant-based ingredients in recipe

For the purpose of this Blog and cookbook, Our Daily Bread, the original recipes include Clogger in the title, and the revised recipes have UnClogged.

   Sloppy Joe—Clogger
   Sloppy Joe—UnClogged

To Get Started, Let's Consider Simple Sloppy Joe
I chose Sloppy Joe, an excellent, quick and simple example of a family favorite recipe to UnClog. Only one ingredient, ground beef, is replaced with beans and/or veggie patties.

Here's a Great Web-Tool to Determine Nutritional Content
To determine the nutrient content of any recipe, Chron-o-meter provides a valuable service to the home cook. Enter all the ingredients in your recipe to determine the nutritional values (and also to verify that the cholesterol content number is 0).

For the purpose of today's Sloppy Joe recipe - both the Clogger and UnClogged versions - only the fat and cholesterol numbers are listed in this table:

The fat has been lowered from 21% to 8%. too!

Notes: Except for switching black beans and/or 2-3 vegan burger patties for ground beef, the following recipes are exactly the same. Identical ingredients and steps are highlighted in green.

Sloppy Joe is usually served over toasted hamburger buns. It’s great served over rice, polenta, biscuits, toast, cornbread, etc., too. For folks who like some "heat," put out bottles of Tabasco, Cholula or Sriracha, etc. Easy to double or triple, transfer to a crock pot to serve a crowd at a buffet.

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Sloppy Joe—Clogger (animal ingredients in recipe)

Serves 4-6

   1 lb ground beef     
                                    
   1 cup onion, finely chopped
   1 cup celery, finely chopped
   1 green pepper, finely chopped   
   1 Tbsp brown sugar
   1 Tbsp prepared mustard
   1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
   1 Tbsp white vinegar
   1 Tbsp lemon juice
   1 tsp paprika
   1 tsp salt
   1 cup ketchup     

Brown ground beef and drain excess fat. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. 　
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Sloppy Joe—Unclogged (only plant-based ingredients)

Serves 4-6

   1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
   and/or

   2-3 vegan burger patties, broken into chunks.
         for some kick, use spicy vegan burger patties

Wheee!

  1 cup onion, finely chopped
  1 cup celery, finely chopped
  1 green pepper, finely chopped
  1 Tbsp brown sugar
  1 Tbsp prepared mustard
  1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  1 Tbsp white vinegar
  1 Tbsp lemon juice
  1 tsp paprika
  1 tsp salt
  1 cup ketchup 

 
Put everything in large sauce pan, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Can the UnClogged version taste as good (or even better) as the Clogger? You be the judge. Enjoy!