Beef Sloppy Joes with Ciabatta Recipe from Hello Fresh

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You have probably heard of Hello Fresh recipe boxes and seen their videos of their yummy meals on your social media newsfeed. But did you also know that they have a recipe portal that is completely free for you to use too? They do, and not only that, there are lots of delicious meals on there for you to choose from. There are handy tools where you can select the number of people you’re cooking for, there is also a skill guide to help people that are not so confident in the kitchen choose a recipe that will be easy for them to make.

Hello Fresh set me the challenge of making one of their recipes at home, using my own ingredients. Confession time, I am not the regular house cook, that role falls to my husband who is much better at it than me, although I love to bake. So we decided to tackle this project together and decided to make their beef sloppy joes with ciabatta.

Beef Sloppy Joes with Ciabatta Recipe

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 240g beef mince
• 1 pot American style spice mix
• 1 sachet of ketchup (we actually swapped this for barbecue sauce because it was what we had in the cupboard and it worked perfectly well)
• 2 ciabatta rolls (or a baguette to share)
• Half a lime (we used a whole one and it was super zingy)
• 1 avocado
• 1 tin finely chopped tomatoes, onions and garlic (we only had a garlic and tomatoes mix tin so just added a finely chopped small onion to the recipe)
• 1 carrot
• 30 grams cheddar cheese

Method

1. Heat a large frying pan over high heat with a drizzle of oil. Once, hot, If you want to add your own onion as I mentioned above, to the recipe, dice and add to the pan first, before the mine. Add the mince, breaking up with a spoon, and cook until golden brown, 3-4 mins. Break it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Meanwhile, trim and coarsely grate the carrot (no need to peel!). Once browned, drain any excess fat from the beef, then add the carrot to the pan along with the Central American spice mix and cook, stirring, for 2 mins.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes and ketchup (as above we swapped ketchup for barbecue here and it worked really well) to the mince. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until thick and tomatoey, 5-6 mins. Tip: Add a splash of water if the beef mixture is looking a little dry.
3. Meanwhile, pre-heat your grill to high and coarsely grate the cheddar cheese.
4. Halve the ciabattas horizontally. Place the ciabattas on a baking tray cut side up. Once the beef is cooked, divide it between the ciabattas. Sprinkle over the grated cheese. Place on the top shelf of your grill for 3-4 mins until the cheese is nicely melted.
5. Meanwhile, slice lengthways into the avocado. Once you reach the stone turn the avocado around to cut it in half. Twist each half and pull it apart. Remove the stone then scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Add a squeeze of lime juice with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper and mash roughly with the back of a fork. Taste and add more lime if needed. I’d heartily recommend a whole lime as it made the guacamole super zingy which but complemented the beef perfectly.
6. Divide the filled hot ciabattas between plates and serve with the guacamole on top. Enjoy!

Verdict

This was a really delicious recipe, that was easy to make. I mentioned above that I am not the resident cook, but I needn’t have worried about making this recipe on my own, because it was definitely a recipe I could have made confidently all by myself. I will be checking out more of their recipes for the future. It’s also a great way to see if you would get on well with their recipe boxes in the future too.

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