Lentil “Meat” Sauce for Pasta
You can adjust your favourite meat sauce to remove the ground beef/oil and add a can of rinsed lentils, but here’s what I do (leave out anything you don’t like and adjust ingredients to taste):
Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, diced
1/2 large green pepper, chopped
1/2 large red pepper, chopped
1 can of red lentils, drained and rinsed
1 packed cup of spinach (or just a big handful or two I don’t measure)
1 can of no/low fat zesty tomato sauce (with no or minimal oil/sugar added) – Note: I now use a can of crushed tomatoes to avoid oil.
1 sprinkle red pepper flakes (as much as you like to make it hot or not)
1 package of whole wheat linguine noodles
Instruction:
Boil the noodles as per instructions
While the water is boiling, saute the chopped red/green pepper in water in a frying pan to soften under medium heat. As it softens add the onion. As the onion softens add the garlic and spinach. The spinach will shrivel up a lot so don’t be shy.
When the ingredients are pretty soft add a can of zesty tomato sauce. Rinse lentils in strainer until the starchy foam is gone. Add the can of rinsed lentils and heat. Turn down heat if it starts to bubble, stirring regularly.
Drain noodles when done. Put noodles on a plate and pour sauce on top. If you like more sauce add a can of tomato paste and water to dilute the lentils/veggies.
