Sloppy Joes with a turkey twist

Sloppy joes. I remember when my Mom made these for the first time when I was a kid, and the concept fascinated me.
   It was a like a hamburger, but not. I needed to use a knife and fork to eat it. The name fit it so well – definitely sloppy!
   (According to Wikipedia, Sloppy Joes are called Victory Burgers in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, where I live. This is news to me.)
  When I came across a recipe for Barbecued-Turkey Sloppy Joes (click for the recipe)* from America's Test Kitchen recently, I knew I needed to take a walk down memory lane and make them.
   I wasn’t disappointed. These sloppy joes are terrific comfort food, with the moist turkey mixed with a slightly sweet sauce. The whole family will like it.
   They weren’t the sloppiest Sloppy Joes, however. My husband filled a bun with it and ate it like a hamburger. That’s not a bad thing, just a note to those who feel the meat of sloppy joes should spill over the bun and into the next town.
   *The recipe I linked to above, on a blog, is for an America’s Test Kitchen’s Sloppy Joe recipe that uses beef.
   I’m sure it that variation is delicious, but if you want to make the recipe I did for turkey sloppy joes, you just need to make a few tweaks here and there.
   First and foremost is an important ingredient substitution.
   Both the turkey and beef recipes call for one cup of tomato puree. I have searched for this product high and low and have been unable to find it.
   I used a substitute of one part tomato paste mixed with one part water. For the one cup called for in the turkey sloppy joes recipe, I mixed ½ cup tomato paste with ½ cup water.
   Here are the other key substitutions ingredient and step subsitutions to transform beef sloppy joes into turkey:
- Instead of one pound of ground beef, use one pound of ground turkey.
- Instead of ½ cup ketchup, use ½ cup barbecue sauce.
- In step 2, cook the onions and salt for five minutes instead of 10.
- In step 6, forget the part about adding “the remaining salt and black pepper.” Let people salt or pepper their own servings if they desire.

If you want exactly the same recipe I used without having to compare this blog post to the one I linked to, head out and buy a copy of the spring edition of America’s Test Kitchen’s 30-Minute Suppers, on newsstands until May 9, 2011.
   It’s got many other terrific-looking recipes I have my eye on to try, which may just show up on Recipes That Worked, including:
   - Quick Country Captain Chicken
   - Chicken-Sausage Sandwich with Broccoli Slaw
   - Flank Steak with Spicy Peanut Noodles
   - Creamy Beef Curry
   - Greek Meatballs with Herb and Lemon Orzo
   - Indonesian-Style Pork Fried Rice
   - Crab-Stuffed Sole with Lemon-Butter Sauce
   - Cod with Herbed Tomato-Caper Compote
   - Spicy Shrimp-and-Herb Salad Wrap
   - Cabbage and Kielbasa Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing