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Forget the buns! These homemade Whole30 Sloppy Joes pair perfectly with baked sweet potatoes for a healthy and delicious comfort food meal. Made with real food ingredients, and easy to make too! Paleo, gluten-free, and dairy-free too!
Whole30 Sloppy Joe Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
These sweet potato sloppy joes are a healthy version of your favorite childhood comfort food! Traditional sloppy joes with the classic buns have added sugars, high fructose corn syrup, BBQ sauce filled with sugar, gluten, and more junk ingredients.
You won’t taste the difference, and you’ll feel good about eating these healthy sloppy joes! The baked caramelized sweet potatoes pair perfectly with the Whole30 sloppy joe mixture, adding just the right amount of sweetness.
Not only are they easy to make, but they are perfect to make for meal prep, and are freezer friendly. If you’re short on time feel free to microwave the sweet potatoes instead of baking them in the oven.
Whole30 and PaleoSloppy Joe Ingredients:
Skip the ketchup, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and buns! Add some healthy, quality ingredients to your healthy sloppy joe recipe. These ingredients are all Paleo friendly and whole30 compliant.
Grass-fed ground beef- grass-fed beef is much higher quality than grain-fed, and the cows are treated much better. You can find grass-fed beef at most grocery stores now. I order it from a local farmer. ButcherBox is also a great option to order from, if you don’t have access locally. They deliver straight to your door!
Tomato paste and tomato sauce– I buy the Thrive Market brand. Bionaturae, Rao’s Homemade, Amore, and Muir Glen (all on Thrive Market) are also great brands. Amore tomato paste comes in a great tube with a cap, so you can seal it back and store it in the fridge. You want to pick a tomato paste and sauce without “natural flavors”. I wouldn’t recommend buying a brand like Hunt’s Tomato Sauce, because it’s not good quality.
Spices-cumin, paprika, garlic powder. I choose to buy organic spices and seasonings because I know they are high quality and carefully sourced. You can buy an organic spices kit with 15 spices from Thrive Market for just $39.95.
How To Make Sweet Potato Sloppy Joes
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Start by washing and drying your sweet potatoes. Poke 6-8 holes on each side of the sweet potato.
Drizzle potatoes with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt and rub evenly over each potato. Bake for 40-45 minutes for small-medium sweet potatoes and 50-60 minutes for large-extra large sweet potatoes.
Add water to the skillet and simmer the sloppy joe mixture for 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven. Check for doneness by poking sweet potatoes with a fork or knife. If the potato is hard, place it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise through the center. Stuff the sweet potatoes with the sloppy joe mixture.
What To Serve With Homemade Sloppy Joes
Sloppy joes pair really well with sweet potatoes, however you could also use baked russet potatoes.
Gluten-free buns are also an option, although I haven’t been able to find any in the store that are worth eating. Paleoglutenfree.com has a flourless paleo hamburger bun recipe that looks delicious!
If you are wanting veggies with your meal, broccoli, spaghetti squash, zucchini, or lentils all pair well.
Forget the buns! These homemade Whole30 Sloppy Joes pair perfectly with sweet potatoes for a healthy and delicious comfort food meal. Made with real food ingredients, and easy to make too! Paleo, gluten-free, and dairy-freetoo!
Ingredients
Scale
For sweet potatoes
4 medium-large sweet potatoes or 6 small sweet potatoes
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wash and dry sweet potatoes. Poke holes in each sweet potato with a fork or sharp knife 6-8 times on each side. Drizzle potatoes with olive oil and sea salt and rub over the entire potato. Bake sweet potatoes for 40-45 minutes, or until a fork or knife is easily inserted.
In a medium-large sized skillet, heat ghee over medium heat. Sauté onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add brown beef and brown, breaking up chunks, until no longer pink.
Remove sweet potatoes from the oven. You can check for doneness by sticking a fork or knife through the center of the potato. Cut sweet potatoes lengthwise and fill with sloppy joes skillet mixture. Garnish with parsley or green onions.
If you are short on time, microwave the sweet potatoes.
Sweet potato baking time will depend on size of sweet potatoes. Small sweet potatoes take 40-45 minutes, whereas large sweet potatoes take 50-60 minutes to bake.
This recipe sounds amazing! I noticed that it calls for tomato sauce and most of those sauces contain sugar additives that are not Whole30 compliant. Is there a specific brand that you recommend?
I love that this is simple and fast to make. Paleo ketchup is amazing, but too expensive for using in large quantities as an ingredient! So I’m thankful to have found a more sophisticated recipe. When I have the time I like to take some time to really caramelize my onions to add some of that sweetness my family misses. The flavor is great and I love that my kids can have them on a bun and feel like they’re eating normal food. I put mine on a sweet potato and my husband likes his own a white one or a bun.
This recipe sounds amazing! I noticed that it calls for tomato sauce and most of those sauces contain sugar additives that are not Whole30 compliant. Is there a specific brand that you recommend?
We use Simple Truth Organic tomato sauce from Kroger—free from sugar/sugar substitutes
We recommend Thrive Market’s own brand for tomato sauce, paste, and peeled potatoes. Kroger is a very good brand as well.
I love that this is simple and fast to make. Paleo ketchup is amazing, but too expensive for using in large quantities as an ingredient! So I’m thankful to have found a more sophisticated recipe. When I have the time I like to take some time to really caramelize my onions to add some of that sweetness my family misses. The flavor is great and I love that my kids can have them on a bun and feel like they’re eating normal food. I put mine on a sweet potato and my husband likes his own a white one or a bun.
★★★★★
Dumb question…what’s the vinegar for and can you taste it? I can not stand anything with vinegar/smell.
Hello! Some type of vinegar is used in most sloppy joe recipes 🙂 You cannot taste it I promise!
The recipe says add water but there is no water in the measurements?
I apologize, I must have missed that. I just added it to the recipe 🙂
When do you add the water? And what to?
this recipe is AMAZING and so easy to make!!!!! It makes fantastic leftovers that you will actually want to eat.
★★★★★
So glad you loved it!
This dish is delicious! I was worried I wouldn’t like the paleo diet but if it all tastes like this, I’m excited!
★★★★★