Vegan pasta Bolognese - quick and easy

29 Jun 2017

I used to love how my mum made pasta Bolognese when I was a child. Sometimes you just miss flavours you had as a child. So I made a vegan Bolognese version. It's very easy to make and takes less than half an hour to cook. It doesn't contain mushrooms like other vegan equivalents and is boasting with protein!

I recently posted a questionnaire on my Facebook page about which foods people were missing and lots of them were asking for a simple Bolognese recipe, so here you go! Instead of mince meat I am using meatless mince or soy mince (the sauce has roughly 70g of protein in total). Another name for it is TVP and it's very high in protein! My recipes is using a frozen version from Sainsbury's. If yours is dried prepare to cooking instructions before adding to the sauce. Instead of pancetta I am using sun-dried tomatoes which really works so well. The flavours are just so comforting and you can make it all in one pot, so cleaning up isn't such a hassle. Just add your choice of pasta and you have a perfect weekend meal. You can also easily freeze the sauce, so that really helps when you are trying to prepare meals in advance or if you like to make your own ready meals.

And if you like this video check out my youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/exceedinglyvegan

I love pasta dishes, they are quick to make, are fairly healthy and just so comforting. Simpy Belissimo! ;-)

I researched traditional Italian Bolognese recipes, changed the non-vegan ingredients to vegan alternatives and added some seasoning to give it the rich taste I love. The result was not just delicious, but lower in fat than the original, high in protein and very delicious.

INGREDIENTS (5 portions):

Bolognese sauce ingredients:

1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped carrot
1 finely chopped celery
350g of meat-free mince (TVP)
A few finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
150ml dry red wine (not sweet)
8 tbsp tomato pureé (or 4 tbsp tomato paste)
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp smoked paprika powder
1 tsp BBQ seasoning
1 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste
500ml water
1 tsp oregano

Other ingredients:

Pasta of your choice

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METHOD:

Very finely chop 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery and sauté in a large pan in a bit of oil until softened.

Then add 350g frozen meat-free mince (also called TVP, see above text for more info if needed). Then add all other sauce ingredients. Stir and cook on medium to high heat for 15 minutes (add a bit more water if needed). If you can't find tomato purée, then use roughly 4 tbsp of tomato paste and a bit more water. If you don't have either then you can use tinned tomatoes in juice, but this will increase the cooking time. In this case you have to cook for roughly an hour otherwise the tomato sauce would be too acidic. Alternatively just add a tiny bit of sugar or a tiny bit of baking soda to neutralise the acidity.

While the sauce is in the making cook the pasta of your choice to go with it.

Enjoy!

And if you like quick and easy vegan pasta dishes then try my 15 minute pasta with aubergine pesto.