Smelly veggie Bolognese

[VolcanionSteamArtillery]

So i do a mean slow cooker veggie Bolognese lentils, mushrooms with hidden/purree carrot and courgette. Tastes fab but it just doesnt smell appetizing. It fact it smells kinda bad

I then tried the same with mince instead of lentils and same problem. No nice Bolognese smell. I dont really want to change the quantity of veg and chopped just won't cut the mustard.

Any ideas?

It doesn't smell like Bol because it isn't Bol.

I'm sure it's delicious as it is, but you really need to change the ingredients & follow a traditional recipe. No mushrooms or courgettes, plenty of red wine, toms, garlic etc

You're right more a tomato lentil pasta than a Bolognese

But in all honesty I'd rather keep the smell than lose the veg, anything that covers at least 5 of your 5 a day and the kids still eat is a good thing in my book. But if i could get rid of the smell without lowering the veg count that would be better still.

Im not fussed about it smelling like traditional Bolognese, just rather it didnt intermittently whiff of rotton veg.

Suggest you use (drained) tinned or pre-cooked lentils (that have been rinsed first in cold water), and replace the courgettes with tinned kidney beans. Use dried italian herbs during the cooking process and finish off with fresh at the end. Do you use onions and garlic? If not a little does really go a long way in making food smell good.

Yes to Garlic, onion and dried herbs. Red wine is only when i have it otherwise red wine vinegar and tomato puree/chutney/ketchup depending on what i have. Usually a stock cube, occasionally i resorted to a few gravy granules which helped a little.

I do use dried lentils but i dont think its them because i had the same smell when i went back to mince. Unless its them in combo. Im not keen on kidney beans unless they are drowned out by Chilli.

Im sure its pureeing the carrot and courgette. So leaving out the courgette probably would work, but id rather replace with an alternative green veg. I cant get them on spinach sadly and we tend to have green beans abd broccoli on the side of everything.