Jeff Kontur says he's had "many bouts of being vegetarian, pescatarian, and just about every other kind of 'tarian' you can think of. Never for moralistic reasons. Mostly, it has been out of health consciousness."
Manwich meals from his kidhood hold fond memories for Jeff. The busy copywriter and business builder (get his latest ebook free) admits he ate junk food (who hasn't?!) but eats healthier now. When he's not engaged in his freelance work, his wife and kids may find him in the kitchen where he loves to experiment. Jeff changed his grocery-buying ways, adopting a new rule---"anything with only one ingredient (i.e., eggs, milk, beef, carrots, etc.) was automatically fair game." If a food has more than one ingredient, he first checks the label to see "how much artificial crap was in there." Consume as little crap as possible is his goal. The recipe below is the result of his new buying habits.
Duplicating the familiar tastes of the Manwich he enjoyed as a kid took a little research. First, he checked out a can of Manwich, saw that, luckily, the ingredients weren't "too heavy on the garbage." Lucky, too, that "all the flavor comes from significant ingredients." Ingredients that are easy to find.
Matching textures isn't always a slam-dunk when switching out ingredients into a healthier version. The original Manwich recipe calls for ground beef, but what's the fun in going for the easy when you're building a new recipe? Meat substitutes didn't work for him since many contain unhealthy chemicals and fillers. He landed on the perfect fiber/protein solution: beans. All canned beans are not created equal, of course; they come in a variety of textures. "Ultimately, I decided to combine several different varieties for several reason: to vary the texture, to balance the nutrition, and add more depth to the overall flavor…mixing them gave great benefits in achieving all three goals." But he's not locked into your using his choices. He offers a couple others such as lentils, Northern beans, black-eyed peas, or split peas, but he warns against using butter beans, since they're soft.
In the interest of texture, Jeff also made some "minor substitutions (like using agave syrup) in order to keep the proper texture."
Jeff Kontur's Vegetarian Manwich
- 29 oz. can tomato sauce
- 2 T white vinegar
- 2 T sugar
- 2 T organic agave syrup
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp BBQ seasoning
- 1/4 sweet yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 red pepper, finely chopped
- 1/4 green pepper, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp garlic
- 1/2 12-14oz can each: garbanzo beans, dark red kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans
Saute onion, garlic and both peppers in the bottom of a medium-large saucepan. (All of this can be done in one pan.) Add all remaining ingredients except beans. Stir well and simmer.
Rinse and drain all the beans. Mince them finely with a hand chopper. (The black beans and kidney beans are relatively soft so an electric chopper would be too aggressive.) Add the beans to the saucepan, mix well and simmer over medium heat until hot.
Jeff suggests serving the dish with a slice of smoked gouda on a lightly toasted Jewish challah roll. (You can usually find these only on Fridays, when they are made for the Jewish sabbath.) Garnish with kumquats and pair with a glass of Merlot.
The picture says it all---Yum!
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