Listen, as a mom for over a decade, I know how important quick, easy meals are and this slow cooker sloppy joes recipe hits all the right notes.
Plus, what kids don’t love sloppy joes! You’re literally giving them a reason to have a messy dinner!
Sloppy joes themselves are really easy to make; however, these slow cooker vegan sloppy joes are even easier. Literally we are just going to throw most of our ingredients together in a slow cooker and then the recipe is good to go.
Lentils are a great meat replacement because they are filling and take on somewhat of a similar texture in that they are hearty.
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Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes Ingredients:
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make this easy crockpot vegan sloppy joes:
- lentils – you want to use green or brown lentils for this recipe. Red lentils break down too much so they won’t be great for this recipe
- onions, garlic, and bell peppers – These three are our aromatics of the dish and create the base layer of flavor that is perfect is giving this knock off burger lots of flavor.
- seasonings- We have a unique blend that we highly suggest not altering. Obviously, you can taste and adjust as needed, but we definitely recommend starting with the base we suggest
- diced tomatoes – We love fire roasted tomatoes in this dish. Adding the tomatoes into the lentils when it first start cooking allowing for the flavor to develop
- soy sauce and liquid smoke – the soy sauce gives us an umami flavor and the liquid smoke helps the recipe seem like it’s been out under a smoker for hours
- ketchup, yellow mustard, brown sugar – these three are the base of any sloppy joe recipe and give that sloppy yet sweet
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
- lentils – you could sub the dried lentils for canned lentils. If you do this, reduce the stock to ¾ cup.
- diced tomatoes – While we love fire roasted tomatoes in this dish, any diced tomatoes would work
- soy sauce and liquid smoke – soy sauce can be swapped with coconut or liquid aminos if needed
- yellow mustard – try swapped the yellow mustard for dijon for a little different taste
- brown sugar – replace with coconut sugar, date sugar or a syrup like maple syrup
Frequently Asked Questions:
This recipe is already very allergen friendly. You just need to swap the soy sauce for coconut aminos or a no soy soy sauce depending on your allergens.
Yes! Once made and cooled, this sloppy joes recipe can be stored in an air tight container for up to 5-7 days.
You can do it in the microwave for 60-90 seconds depending on the amount or you can add into a saucepan over medium low heat for 5 minutes or until heated through. Either way you choose, you may want to add a splash of vegetable stock before reheating.
The biggest tip that we can give here is to not overcook it. Most slow cooker recipes need between 4 and 8 hours; however, this one only needs 3. Other than that, follow the exact recipe amounts.
If you need to make this recipe faster, we suggest you follow our recipe for our regular (non-slow cooker) vegan lentil sloppy joes.
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What other easy vegan dinner ideas could I make?
- Vegan Beefless Stew
- Taco Bell Copycat Mexican Pizza
- Easy Black Bean Tacos
- Vegan Lentil Tacos with Spinach and Feta
- Vegan French Bread Pizza
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Slow Cooker Vegan Lentil Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried lentils (green or brown)
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced (other colors work too)
- 2 ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 15 oz canned diced fire-roasted tomatoes (NOT drained)
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce (can use coconut aminos or no soy soy sauce)
- 2 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 2 ¼ cups low sodium vegetable stock
- 1 cup ketchup, more or less to taste
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, more or less to taste
- 4 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 1-2 tablespoons sriracha, optional only if you want it spicy
- 8 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Into a slow cooker add everything from the lentils to the vegetable stock. Stir very well together.
- Turn on slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3. Do not overcook. Most all of the liquid should be evaporated, if not all to continue cooking a bit longer.
- Remove lid and add in the ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. If wanting it spicy, add the sriracha.
- Stir together and serve on buns.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Did you make and love this recipe?
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I goofed and added everything to the pot before I finished reading. Will this ruin the batch adding the last three ingredients too soon?
No you’ll be fine
Ok so I just did this up to the ketchup! My 12 year old was by me, and I “joked” – ‘oh no I was not suppose to add that!” and I thought I was kidding… but then realized I indeed was not kidding! No coming back! LOL – So glad to see your post!
HAHA, glad this one is oops-proof!
Made this today and it was pretty darn tasty. It was still a bit more “soupy” than preferred, but that’s just needing to adjust and perfect amounts. I was surprised that with fire roasted tomatoes, and bell peppers, and chili powder, and paprika it wasn’t a torch for the tastebuds, lol. Much more tame than one would expect. The taste wasn’t “quite” the exact match of Manwich for traditional beef sloppy joes. That was the only thing that took away from me…. very close, but not quite. Any ideas on how to incorporate a can of Manwich to get the flavor more exact? Add it from the beginning, or maybe use it instead of the ketchup?
This is definitely a homemade version so it’s going to have a different taste for sure. Manwich (at least the original) is vegan friendly so you could literally just add that to cooked lentils and cook down for a bit if that’s the taste you want.
My house smells delicious! My 8 year old and I approve of this recipe!
Are you able to freeze it for later?
Yes you can
I’ve never had a sloppy joe so I have nothing to compare it to. Nonetheless this was so easy to make and delicious!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Made this in a Dutch oven and it was amazing! Great rolls and cole slaw only added to an already amazing meal!
So happy to hear that you enjoyed that recipe. We appreciate you leaving a review
Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.
So happy to hear that
Ummm, this is amazing!!!! I saw it on YouTube and was like I’m going to try that. I wanted to do something without a processed “meat”. As it was cooking it smelled just like Sloppy Joe sauce, but Ba-be when I was finished cooking and the finally touches were added. Magnificent. Love, love, love this. Thank you for sharing.
haha, love it! So happy that you enjoyed the recipe