This recipe uses healthy chickpeas in a rich tomato sauce. It can be made ahead for a healthy lunch accompanied by some steamed rice  or with crusty bread.

Chickpeas with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 slices of bacon chopped finely
• 1 carrot, chopped finely
• 1 brown onion chopped finely
• 1 stalk of celery chopped finely
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 cups of tomato passata
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tins of chickpeas, drained
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock

Method

1. Heat oil in a large frypan  and cook bacon, celery, onion and carrot on a medium heat for 8 minutes or until the onion is transparent
2. Add tomato paste, tomato passata, chick peas
3. Stir in the stock and the chopped parsley
4. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes until the sauce is thickened, adding some extra water if you see the sauce is drying out
5. Half way through the cooking period add salt and ground pepper.
6. Serve with steamed rice or your favourite crusty sourdough bread, and a sprinkling of fresh parsley over the top.

Variations

You can vary this basic recipe with any kind of white beans that you would like.

The addition of a long red chilli chopped finely and prepared to your liking with 2 cans of canellini beans will make this a nice chilli bean recipe.