Beans and lentils in tomato sauce, is actually a well-tested solid base apparently

 Okay so I got distracted during my wild writing thing situation, and ended up watchin g thirty minutes with the paul rudd's hot ones video. What a goddamn standup down-to-earth reasonable decent guy that man is, ehh. Conan o brien also needs to interview Aisling Bea, because irish connection, paul rudd connection, and Aisling's really been going places doing things, she's made it out, broken through she deserves it. Any day now though I bet.

This is about something I discovered out of laziness over the last year, also thanks to the pandemic and the refusal to go to grocery stores due to health concerns, but now it's become a part of my regular rotation of things I make. It's easy to make, goes with a bunch of other carbs, and quite hard to get wrong. Plus so very healthy, and extensible to accommodate other ingredients.

What we're talking about is the 'bean chilli' or 'chickpeas in pasta' sauce, situation. You basically take a can of tomato sauce or tomatoes, and put them in the pan, with a large sauteed onion, lots of garlic, olive oil, and ginger if you wish. Let it cook for half an hour, maybe fourty five minutes closed, and then open up the lid slightly to get the air out and have the sauce thicken up. Once it's the desired consistency, add a can...or two...of beans, chickpeas, black beans, white beans, whatever your heart desires, and a couple of boiled eggs. That's it.

To make it fancier, you can add grated cheese before warming, so the cheese melts in and gives this amazing texture. Or instead of -- perhaps in addition to, if you so desire -- the chickpeas, you can also put in lentils, of any kind. Red lentils, for example, they cook in really easily, softening up takes maybe twenty minutes of boiling, you add it to the tomato sauce and you have a thick gravy texture, add a couple of beans, some tofu and what not, and you have an amazing sauce that will go with literally anything. The texture gives it some 'heft', all the beans and lentils add proteins and healthy carbs, the ghee butter and olive oil you've surely used throughout the process make it hella healthy and filling. You do need lots of garlic and onions, possibly other fresh herbs and addons because they add the complexity and flavor, the onions add great texture to the dish, without which it sorta' becomes gloomy unidentifiable mess.

The other great thing about this is, you can put in all the effort in the world you want to, or none at all. So you could be making chickpeas and beans and lentils from scratch, or you could use canned everything, just wash all the items, heat up the tomato puree and dump it in there, the puree which you could also be making yourself, or buying off the can. I've been using all canned stuff, because I don't have the time and energy to do everything for scratch, it doesn't add much flavor or texture to make it all by yourself, but if you've got the inclination to go that way, go for it!