Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes (Kidney-Friendly)

What’s not to love about sloppy joes?  They’re a classic all-American food that’s a favorite of the whole family! With our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe, you don’t have to give up this traditional favorite just because you need to watch the sodium, phosphorus, and/or potassium in your diet!

Of course, we’ll run through the nutritional stats and all of the other reasons you’ll want to keep our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe on your usual meal rotation.  However, before I do that, I’d like to tell you about the real reason why I developed this recipe and many more like it.

Jump to:

• The inspiration for our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes (Kidney-Friendly) recipe?
• Why not store-bought, ready-made sloppy sauce?
• The Ingredients in our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes (Kidney-Friendly) recipe
• Variations to our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes
• What can I serve with our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes?
• Enjoy your Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes
• Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes (Kidney-Friendly)

The inspiration for our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes (Kidney-Friendly) recipe?

I’ve been a dietitian for many years, and for almost half of these, I have worked with people who have chronic kidney disease.  Mostly those with end-stage kidney disease on dialysis.  One thing I've observed time and time again is that these people NEED meals that will fit into their everyday lives. 

In theory, it sounded great to simply tell them to make everything from scratch using only whole foods.  Even if that meant spending hours in the kitchen every week and almost as much time in the grocery store! Or making themselves separate meals because their families wouldn’t eat the food that they were told they had to eat.

Now, I’d like to clarify. If you are able to do that every day, that’s great!  In a perfect world, everyone with chronic and end-stage kidney disease would eat only meals made from scratch with only whole foods at all times!

However, in all honesty, for most people, this just isn’t feasible for every meal.  I felt like we were setting them up for failure by not giving them real-life solutions. I believe that healthy, kidney-friendly meals and simple meals do not have to be mutually exclusive.  

Thus, the idea for “The Everyday Kidney Cook” was born!  And when I imagined the recipes that I would feature on my blog, one recipe came to mind over and over—a recipe for sloppy joes!   

5 Criteria for recipes by The Everyday Kidney Cook (including our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes)

Before posting recipes, I analyze them against these 5 criteria first. Our recipe for Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes fits them all perfectly!  Here are the criteria:

1.       Easy to make

The recipes on our blog need to be easy enough so that they can be made by even those with the most basic cooking skills. Recipes simple enough for the bachelor who never really learned to cook.  Or the young adult who recently moved out on their own and suddenly has to cook for him/herself.

What about the busy mom or dad who has a household to run and kids’ schedules to juggle in addition to his/her dialysis schedule?  And the elderly or disabled person who isn’t physically capable of making involved meals. 

Or those who just don’t feel well enough. And then there are those that just would rather spend their time doing something else! 

As the name implies, our “Easy” Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe fits the bill!  If you can measure some ingredients with a measuring cup and spoon and brown some ground beef, you can make this recipe!

2.       Contain a limited number of readily-available ingredients. 

It’s not practical to have recipes that require a lot of uncommon ingredients that can’t be found at the regular grocery store.  And if a recipe uses 20 different ingredients, I don’t consider that easy!  Most of our recipes contain no more than 5 or 6 ingredients, not counting spices. (Many contain less).

Our Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe uses our 1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce (Kidney-Friendly)as its sauce.  If you keep a supply of the sauce on hand, then our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes uses only 3 ingredients (not counting the sandwich roll).  These ingredients are:  

• 1-minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce (Kidney-Friendly)
• Ground beef
• Onion flakes. 

If you don’t have our 1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce already made up in the fridge, no worries!  The recipe is so easy it can be made in, well, 1 minute!  And it only uses 3 ingredients as well.  Which would still bring the number of ingredients for this recipe to grand total of only 6!

We'll do a deep-dive into the ingredients, possible substitutions, variations, etc. a little later.

3.       Kidney-Friendly

All of our recipes are lower in sodium, phosphorus & potassium.  Our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe contains:

• 173 mg sodium
• 325 mg potassium
• 145 mg phosphorus. 

Note: You’ll need to add the nutrition information for the bun to the above totals.  We give some kidney-friendly bun options below!

Those in earlier stages of chronic kidney disease may not need to limit phosphorus and potassium.  However, those with advanced or end stage kidney disease often need to limit all 3. Our recipes at The Everyday Kidney Cook eliminate the guesswork because they are safe no matter what stage of kidney disease you are in!  

Of course, always be sure to discuss your individual nutritional needs with your doctor or dietitian.

4.       Great-Tasting

For most people, it’s just not practical to make separate kidney-friendly meals that are different from what the rest of your family is eating because they don’t enjoy your kidney-friendly food. (Who has the time and energy for that?).  Or perhaps you’d like to take a dish to a potluck that you can eat but that others won’t know was made for a “special diet”.  The Everyday Kidney Cook to the rescue!

I personally test all recipes in my own kitchen and employ the help of my family in determining if it’s a winner.  And believe me, they don’t sugar-coat it when letting me know that something isn’t good!  I’ve certainly made my share of duds! 

I’m excited to say that our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe gets the thumbs up in the taste department from the whole family!

5.       Budget-Friendly

With the price of groceries today, not many people can afford to buy expensive ingredients.  The vast majority of our recipes use ingredients that can be bought at a normal grocery store (no specialty grocery stores required!).

Also, using store-brand ingredients when possible is just fine!   You may have noticed I feature store-brand ingredients in my recipes quite often!

Our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe is definitely budget-friendly.  Including the bun, it costs about $12 for one recipe of 6 servings, or about $2 per sandwich.

Why not store-bought, ready-made sloppy sauce?

We’ve talked about all the reasons why our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes is the poster child for a recipe worthy of being featured on our blog.  But you may be asking, “Why not make things even easier (although barely) and just use one of those canned sloppy joe sauces, such as Manwich®️?”.

The biggest drawback with using a canned sloppy joe sauce (such as Manwich®️) compared to our 1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce is that it is much higher in sodium and potassium. 

Below is a comparison of the sodium and potassium content of 1 serving of Manwich®️ vs. 1 serving of 1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce in the amount used in our Low Sodium Sloppy Joes.  

(Side note: the serving size, and thus the nutritional info, of the 1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce used for the sloppy joes is slightly different than the serving size listed on the Low Salt BBQ sauce recipe).

Amount in 1 serving:	Manwich®️	1-MINUTE LOW SALT BBQ SAUCE
Sodium	320 mg	124 mg
Potassium	170 mg	88 mg

The Ingredients in our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes (Kidney-Friendly) recipe

As mentioned above, our recipe uses 3 or 6 ingredients, depending on whether you have the 1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce already on hand, plus the sandwich roll. Let’s review these ingredients:

1.      1-Minute Low Salt BBQ Sauce

If you don’t already have it made up, you can find the recipe here.  It uses 3 ingredients:

• 50% Less Sodium & Sugar Ketchup
• Brown Sugar
• Liquid Smoke.

That’s it!  Super easy and super quick to make! 

2.      Ground Beef

This recipe uses ground beef.  We used 85/15 lean-to-fat ratio in recipe trials and calculations.  I like this ratio because it’s still fairly lean, but not so lean that it’s dry.  Feel free to adjust the lean-to-fat ratio per your preference. 

You may also use ground turkey, chicken, pork or even venison.  Or, for a vegetarian option, use textured vegetable crumbles.

3.      Minced onion

For simplicity, our Low Sodium Sloppy Joes uses 1 Tablespoon of dehydrated minced onion/onion flakes.  However, of course you can use fresh onion if you prefer.  1 small onion, chopped can be used instead of the onion flakes.

4.      Sandwich Roll

There are 2 main things to look at when choosing a kidney-friendly sandwich roll.

Sodium content of sandwich rolls

Breads and rolls can contain a surprising amount of sodium!  In my research, many contained 300-400 mg per roll!  I suggest you try to pick a sandwich roll that contains no more than 250 mg per ~ 2 oz roll.

No phosphate additives in sandwich rolls

Choose a sandwich roll that does not contain phosphate additives.  Admittedly, this is not always easy!  To tell if the roll contains phosphate additives, check the ingredient list for any ingredient that contains “phos” within it.  A common one in breads and rolls is “Monocalcium phosphate”.

Sandwich roll options for Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes

Below are some examples of sandwich rolls that mostly contain 250 mg of sodium or less and that do not contain phosphate additives.   This is not an all-inclusive list.

Pepperidge Farm®️

• Pepperidge Farm®️ Sesame Hamburger Buns:  230 mg sodium
• Pepperidge Farm®️ Onion with Poppy Seeds Hamburger Buns: 210 mg sodium additives
• Pepperidge Farm®️ Soft White Hamburger Buns: 220 mg sodium
• Pepperidge Farm®️ Sweet Hawaiian Hamburger Buns: 230 mg sodium
• Pepperidge Farm®️ Golden Potato Hamburger Buns: 210 mg sodium

Nickels:

• Nickels Sandwich Buns: 190 mg sodium
• Nickels Deli Burger Buns: 210 mg sodium
• Nickels Seeded Kaiser Buns: 240 mg sodium

Kroger®️:

• Kroger®️ Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns: 250 mg sodium
• Kroger®️ White Hamburger Buns: 220 mg sodium
• Private Selection TM Brioche Hamburger Buns: 200 mg sodium

Schwebel’s®️:

• Schwebel’s®️ Sweet Harvest Wheat Sandwich Buns: 210 mg sodium
• Schwebel’s®️ Golden Rich Hamburger Buns with Honey: 200 mg sodium

Marketside (@ Wal-Mart):

• Marketside Brioche Buns: 210 mg sodium
• Marketside Sesame Seed Brioche Buns: 200 mg sodium

Dave’s Killer Bread®️:

• Dave’s Killer Bread®️ Organic Burger Buns: 260 mg sodium.  This one is slightly higher in sodium, but it includes 50% whole grains via whole wheat, rye, barley and other flours, so the extra 10 g of sodium might be worth it!

Variations to our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes

Of course, there is plenty of room to adjust our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes recipe to not only tailor it to your liking, but also maintain its kidney-friendly qualities.  Some examples include:

• Add chopped fresh onions, peppers and/or celery while the meat is browning.
• Make it vegetarian by using textured vegetable crumbles.
• Add some additional spices such garlic, chili powder, red pepper flakes, cumin, smoked or sweet paprika, dry mustard, cayenne pepper or black pepper.
• Add a low sodium cheese such as a thin slice of swiss cheese (This one by Sargento®️ contains only 20 mg of sodium in 1 slice!)

What can I serve with our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes?

Our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes goes great with so many sides.  Try these:

• Our recipe for Super-Easy Low Sodium Baked Beans (Kidney-Friendly)
• A side salad
• Coleslaw, like our Easy American Coleslaw (Kidney-Friendly)
• A steamed or roasted kidney-friendly veggie such as green beans, broccoli or carrots. Try it with our tasty recipe for Frozen Roasted Green Beans (Low Sodium)!
• Raw veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrot & celery sticks and green pepper strips
• A macaroni salad made with kidney-friendly ingredients (for example, mayonnaise-based without extra salt or salt-containing ingredients added to the dressing)
• Or, my favorite, serve it with our Low Sodium Macaroni & Cheese (Dump & Bake).  Talk about an all-American meal!

Enjoy your Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes

When you’re looking for a no fuss, tasty, budget-friendly & comforting meal, give our Easy Low Sodium Sloppy Joes a try!  You won’t be disappointed!