Canned foods are alright

It's possible we've discussed some parts of this in the past, no matter, this is the real deal with regards to how maybe canned food is not as awful as I thought.

First, the dal that trader joe's sells in these Aluminum pouches is freakin' fantastic, it's a bit of a miracle that you can make something so nutritious and tasty, and have it be shelf-stable in room temperature without putting in some serious engineering effort. You just unzip the pouch, put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, and you've got yourself some yummy steaming dal to be eaten with your rice.

Inspired by that, or perhaps in a separate effort, Wegman's has a bunch of canned indian food as well, except they're in proper cans. On one hand that's a bit of a bummer since you need actual can openers, and the cans are heavy, wasteful and not as easy as unzipping a pouch. On the other hand it's cheaper and having solid metal protecting the contents means they can experiment with more fragile textures. Such as chickpeas. Yeah that's right, Wegman's sells canned chana masala and they're actually pretty good. Add in a bunch of sauteed onions, garlic, tomatoes, and you've got a feast going baby.

Even when the chickpeas are not made 'indian style' I have come to appreciate canned beans because you don't need to always plan in advance when you might want to eat them, so they can be your lazy meal. And since they're pre-cooked, you spend only a few short minutes cutting and mixing everything, you're not really putting a lot of time cooking. Having semi-cooked meals with nutritious beans is always healthier and price effective than eating out, or eating other junk food.

So yeah, I used to be quite suspicious of canned food, the sodium content and the possibility of spoilage. It was something reserved exclusively for lazy people, I thought. Now I realized, yeah it's a 'lazy meal' but not just for lazy people, it expands your range of options in which you might want to use chickpeas. Also having just a little amount of chickpeas means that you can include them in smaller dishes without having to worry about the leftovers. And with regards to the sodium content, yeah they're a bit high but so what, cut down your salt intake in other things, it tastes good, and as long as you're not eating chips and burger in every other meal, and this encourages you to have perfect 'homemade' meals more often, it's better than the alternative by a large large margin.

Hurray for canned cooked vegetables that you can use as a base for more complex dishes!