To think spaghetti bolognese is better without meat?

[MrsWinnibago]

DH is vegetarian since the horse meat thing. I'm not but it's hard to cook separate meals all the time so today made vegetarian bolognese and it's FAR nicer than my usual.

I used red lentils instead of meat...onions finely chopped, garlic, fresh and dried basil, rosemary tomato, passata and some finely diced carrot and celery as well as a teeny spoon of marmite.

It's SO nice and obviously cheaper too!

Completely agree!

Are you vegetarian Anonynony?

By the way;....DH doesn't mind the thought of eating a horse in theory but he's heard a lot about slipping standards in Abattoirs.

That's not at all to my taste but YANBU if you like it

Enjoy!

YABU.

My bolognese contains beef mince, bacon and chicken liver as well as a host of other ingredients. No lentil can beat that for flavour.

Hate lentils with a passion!

I like lentils & make a great dhal. But when it comes to bolognese I'd definitely go for squoosh's version - I just don't think you can the same richness of flavour without meat.

Yabu.

It is perfectly possible to make a delicious pasta sauce with lentils, but it's not a Bolognese.

Lentils are yummy! :) and cheap!!

I'm sure your vegetarian pasta sauce was delicious, but bolognese is a meat sauce, no if there is no meat then it's not bolognese.

Completely agree. I also add chopped fried aubergine to ours. We love it, including ds aged 2 (we're not vegetarian either).

Sounds lovely! I would imagine you all fart like the devil after those lentils.

Or you could roast cherry tomatoes with red onions, garlic and basil (with olive oil) takes 10 mins to cook in an oven at 220.

Very nice with spaghetti, fresh and light.

i'm sure it was lovely but it is not bolognese real bologonese takes a few hours and is made with both pancetta and mince even with meat you can not make real bolognese in 20 minutes

Sounds fine, if a little starchy, but not really bolognese but pasta with a lentil and vegetable sauce.

Sounds nice but cooking on a day like today seems rather tedious.

If you eat beans and pulses a lot you stop farting (at least as a response to said beans and pulses). Apparently there is something wrong with your digestion if you don't adapt.

Any vegetarians around who know more about this possibly erroneous factoid?

I would like both equally. I think the veg version would need more texture though, but it sounds delicious.

Re the horse meat thing though. Do you only buy your meat from supermarkets?

Sounds like an OK pasta sauce but it's not really anything much like bolognese.

I'm not usually very strict on food definitions, but that's not bolognese. It's lentil and tomato pasta sauce.

North is right...we don't fart a lot at all! I can't imagine chicken liver in bolognese! I think it's just like bolognese...it's what I did before but without the mince meat.

I've been vegetarian my whole life and I don't have any windy problems from eating lentils/beans so you're probably right northlight

I make a lentil alternative for myself if I make bolognaise for DH and DD. Sometimes we all have the lentil version, it's delicious IMO. Chuck some sundried tomatoes in there - they go great with red lentils.

Also, make lasagne using that instead of the mince bit, you'll thank me

I agree but I use quorn mince instead of beef, I really don't like beef mince - too chewy!

I regularly make a lasagne with a puy lentil ragu, and everyone in my family prefers it to a meat ragu. That said, I made a ragu with diced beef skirt a while ago, slow cooked it for 4 hours, and it was really bloody tasty, much better than with mince, which seems to dissolve with slow cooking (and you need the slow cooking to get the best flavour out of the tomatoes)

I love lentils, and although that sounds lovely, it isn't bolognese and I wouldn't call it better than bolognese; just different.

Btw if I was using lentils in a tomatoey sauce I'd use brown lentils because they keep their shape and have more "bite".

Nope. Never.