Vegatarian Bolagnese Recipe

[lceniWarrior]

Spaghetti Bolagnese is my favourite meal but I have been vegetarian for many years. I'm trying to recreate a ragu sauce that taste very similar but it never hits the spot.

Anyone got good veggie recipes that replicates it really well?

I tend to use lentils and mushrooms but cannot get that creaminess of the meat sauce.

Very finely chop a couple of sticks of celery, a large carrot and a red onion. Soften with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic.
Add half a tube of tomato puree and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add a good glug of red wine and reduce it down.
Throw in a bag of quorn mince, a pack of those microwave green lentils and a tin of tomatoes and veg stock to make it to the desired consistency. Cook long and slow but make sure it doesn't stick!

I've just added butter to mine and it taste so much better!

I use red lentils, garlic, onions, celery, carrots, passata and then blend very very well to make it as smooth as possible.

Instead of lentils I whizz a can of kidney beans in an electric chopper and then add that to the ragu (mix of passata, onion, garlic, mushrooms, sometimes carrot or peppers as well, red pesto, basil and seasoning). Game changer.

I have a recipe for the besssst veggie ragu but I’m sure many bolognese purists would be horrified. Includes black olives, roasted red peppers, Worcester sauce, balsamic, wine (and more ingredients obvs but I think those offer the most flavour). Chop everything very finely or even blend half of it for the creaminess:

So I've done celery, carrot and red onion, garlic, mushrooms, brown lentils, passata, tomato puree, parsley, oregano, basil, stock, bay, butter. Slow cooked since breakfast.

Tastes very nice just not like my favourite dish, although it's been years since I've had it.

Does the kidney beans just add to the sauce thickness?

Might try blending half!

You need to use a lot of tomato purée and add it just after you've softened your soffrito/veg in a good amount of olive oil. Frying off the tomato purée makes a huge difference IME.

Green or puy lentils are lovely and meaty.
I blitz some walnuts in too. Blitzed mushrooms are quite mince like too.

I like one of the Bbc good food recipes and just ignore the bit about adding meat