Recipe - Stovetop Picante Lentil Sauce

1 teaspoon Cumin seeds, toasted*
2 teaspoon Oil or other sauteing liquid
2 md Onions, chopped
5 Cloves garlic, minced
28 ounce Canned crushed tomatoes
One fourth cup Small red lentils, rinsed
and drained**
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 Fresh green chile pepper,
minced
One half cup Picante sauce, mediumhot
AND/OR
1 teaspoon Hot chili paste

Re the request for pizza sauce. I'm not familiar with the flavor of Kraft,
but I did want to say that I have recently been very enamored of the
"Picante Lentil Sauce" which was recently posted on this list. I think it
would be delicious on pizza. It's so thick you really wouldn't need to add
any additional toppings. I have been putting it on just about everything
and haven't found any place it wasn't great. The original recipe did not
involve oil or sauteing and instead called for dumping all the ingredients
into a crockpot and simmering for 6 to 8 hours. Since I don't have a
crockpot I have made the following adjustments. I would think this would be
a very easy recipe to make in bulk and freeze.

In a heavy saucepan, briefly toast the cumin seeds. Remove temporarily.
Heat sauteing liquid in pan and saute onions and garlic until soft, at
least 5 minutes. Add the cumin seeds and all the other ingredients, bring
to a boil and simmer for one hour or longer. Experiment with chilis for
desired flavor. I found that I needed to add hot chili paste, but if you
were using it for pizza you probably wouldn't want the sauce that hot.

*The original recipe called for One half tsp of cumin but I love the stuff.

**The original recipe called for regular brown European lentils. I found
that these lentils were definitely "chewy" with cooking for only an hour,
so I substituted the smaller red lentils which cook faster. If you want to
use large lentils just simmer the sauce longer. Posted to Digest
eatlf.v097.n096 by bgaerlan@ucla.edu (Barbara Gaerlan) on Apr 10, 1997