Spaghetti with ... LENTILS?

Total time (approx.): 40 min

 Ingredients:

• Spaghetti sauce (tomatoes, peppers, seasoning, sugar, salt)
• 1 onion
• Lentils (about 1/3-1/2 c. per serving)
• Spaghetti

 Why you might want to make this:  Because it's fast, easy, cheap, a source of protein and fibre, and (hopefully) yummy!  Perhaps the question you should ask is why wouldn't you want to make this.

The food I ate as a kid may be considered by some to have been a bit strange.  Is lentil spaghetti strange to you?  It was a standby in my family.  And even if some considered our eating habits unusual, most of the time I think we ate much better food than the average north american.  But then again I may be prejudiced.

You really just have to try this to find out how wonderful and practical it is.  Don't expect gormet, but it is so much better to have on hand than mac and cheese (or whatever you keep on hand usually)  If you have canned lentils (which can be hard to find in the US) this recipe is even easier - just dump the lentils in the sauce and heat it all up!

Here's how to make lentil spaghetti:

• Sort and rinse lentils.  Cook them in water on low heat until tender (see, for example http://startcooking.com/blog/196/Lentils).
• Once the lentils are on, put water in a pot for the pasta and begin to heat it to boiling.
• Cut up an onion and sauté to make your sauce more interesting (optional).  Perhaps also some olives and pepper?

• Put the pasta in the water once it comes to a boil.  Drain it when it is cooked and set aside.
• Once the onion is translucent, add a can of pasta sauce (or, if you are making your sauce from scratch, add the tomatoes and proceed as you usually would.  I'll do a post on that sometime later.)
• Once the sauce is hot and the lentils are cooked, mix the two together.  Ad some seasoning as desired (basil, oregano, marjoram, salt, etc).  If you have fresh basil on hand, definitely put it in.  
• Hopefully the pasta is done by now.  Pour a generous amount of the sauce mixture onto pasta.  Top with parmesan cheese to make it extra yummy.  Voila!

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