You're One Ingredient Away From A Way Tastier Meatball Sub

If you're a big meat lover, then you probably love a good meatball sub. But if you want to take your meatball sub to the next level, then all you need to do is add one ingredient that's borrowed from another meat lover's favorite dish. The dish in question? Sloppy Joe's. For a delicious way to upgrade your meatball sub, all you have to do is add sloppy Joe sauce.

This combination makes perfect sense. After all, sloppy Joe's consists of ground beef, veggies, and sauce, while a meatball sub also consists of meat paired with sauce — and both become sandwiches. It only makes sense to combine the two into one hybrid dish that is ultra-savory and delicious.

You can make both components from scratch or use a jar of store-bought sloppy Joe sauce, as well as frozen meatballs (which also make putting together meatball subs easier). If you want to make the sauce from scratch, you can borrow it from Daily Meal's recipe for meaty sloppy Joe's — the sauce consists of ingredients such as tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. If you're cooking the meatballs from scratch on the stovetop, add the sauce after about 10 minutes or after the meatballs have browned. If you're using frozen meatballs, it may call for you to use the oven — pour in the sauce before you bake them and stir the meatballs around the sauce to make sure that they're all coated.

This hybrid sandwich has plenty of room for customization. For example, you can use any type of meatball you want — and there are many meatball options out there. Besides the typical beef meatballs, there are also chicken meatballs and turkey meatballs (or turkey mushroom meatballs for an extra burst of umami). You can even make vegetarian meatballs if you're not a meat eater. Any of these options will taste delicious paired with sloppy Joe sauce. If you're going to go the vegetarian route, just be sure to check the ingredients of the store-bought sauce (if you're not making it from scratch) because some of them include beef broth.

Then, there's the toppings. Most meatball subs use Provolone cheese, but feel free to swap that out for something else — perhaps pepper jack, if you want a hint of heat. Meanwhile, you can take inspiration from traditional sloppy Joe's for extra toppings. Many sloppy Joe recipes include veggies, such as bell pepper and onion, so you may want to try adding those to your sandwich, either integrated into the sauce or added as you're assembling the sandwich. You can also play around with unique toppings in general, such as adding jalapeños for spice or potato chips for crunch.