The Most Nutritious (and Delicious) Red Sauce Yet

Adapted from The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon, this is our new standard red sauce. If you have a bowl of lentils already cooked in the fridge, or a can in the pantry, this comes together in a flash. Packed with antioxidants, this sauce is a keeper.

In a large sauce pan heat 2 T. of olive oil over a medium flame. Add 1 chopped onion and 4 cloves of minced garlic. Reduce heat and cook gently for 5 minutes. Add 3 cups sliced mushrooms (cremini, baby portobellos or plain white), raise the heat to medium-high and saute for 5 minutes. Salt freely to help the mushrooms release their liquid. Cook until the mushrooms are almost dry again and then add 1 28-oz. can of diced tomatoes along with all the juice. Stir in 6 T. tomato paste, 1 cup cooked lentils, 2 T. chia seeds, more salt to taste, 1 T. sugar and fresh or dried oregano and thyme, again, to taste. Simmer the sauce over a medium flame, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Check for seasonings and adjust if needed.

Serve hot over pasta or polenta, topped with crushed red pepper flakes and either grated Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast.