Give Meat Sauce A Fiber And Flavor Boost With A Canned Staple From Your Pantry

While everyone is currently concerned with protein (some are even protein-maxxing and perhaps ingesting a little more than their bodies need), Americans are often lacking when it comes to fiber. If you're looking to  add more fiber-rich foods to your diet, a good place to start is with homemade meat sauce. This classic family dinner staple is full of protein from the ground beef and vitamins from the tomatoes, but it can also get a good fiber — and, surprisingly, flavor — boost from canned lentils.

Yes, you could absolutely incorporate dry lentils into your meat sauce, but they require separate cooking, and if you're just looking to get dinner on the table in a hurry, canned lentils are the convenient, quick way to go. Many brands contain roughly 3 grams of fiber per serving, with at least three servings per can; you'll likely use at least one to two cans per batch of sauce. Plus, lentils contain soluble fiber, which can support digestion, heart health, and healthy cholesterol levels.

But that's not all. The legumes, which add a hearty heft to meat sauce, have slightly different flavor profiles depending on which color lentils you're using, and they'll subtly impart those nuances to your sauce. Whichever type you end up adding, though, it will lend a mild earthiness beneath the rich, robust beef and tomato elements.

Canned lentils are incredibly easy to add to your recipe. You're basically going to make the sauce exactly as you normally would, but before you reduce the heat to low and simmer all the ingredients, you'll drain the cans of lentils (you can give them a rinse, but it's not necessary) and dump them right into the pot. As they simmer with everything else, they'll become even more tender. If you use red lentils, they might even go a little mushy, which is not necessarily a bad thing for a thick meat sauce.

Now, one of the nice things about meat sauce in general is how versatile it is, and this lentil-infused version is no different. You can eat it in the most obvious way, with spaghetti noodles and meatballs. But you might also get more fiber and flavor into your weekly diet by using it as a sauce for lasagna, and if you make a big batch ahead of time, you can have it on hand and ready to go even on busy weekday nights. The same goes for eggplant casserole and an Italian-style sloppy joe (or "messy Giuseppe"). You can even spoon it over some simple garlic bread or turn it into chili.