Veg-Packed Bolognese

You may be thinking, where’s the minced beef in this recipe? Trust me, though, this method using a food processor means you won’t miss the meat at all. The veggies all get blitzed up to a similar texture to mince and all the flavour of a classic rich Bolognese is still here. If you’re not veggie, adding a beef stock cube means the sauce will have lots of meaty flavour; if you are veggie, use a vegetable stock cube and a bit of Marmite to get that savoury taste.

ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• 3 medium carrots, roughly chopped
• 300g chestnut mushrooms
• 100g tomato paste
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 250g cooked puy lentils or 400g tin of cooked green lentils, drained
• 800ml massel chicken-style stock
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• parmesan

method

1 Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a low heat.

2 Add the onions to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped - don’t take them too far or they’ll become a purée! Scrape into the pan and stir to coat with the oil. Blitz the celery and carrots in the same way and add to the pan with the onions. You may need to blitz in batches.

3 Cook the veg over a medium heat with a pinch of salt, stirring often, until softened and translucent, around 5-7 minutes. Remove the veg from the pan to a large bowl and set aside.

4 Add the mushrooms to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Tip the mushrooms into the pan with another pinch of salt and cook on a medium-low heat. Stir often and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid and then dry out, around 10 minutes.

5 Add the cooked veg back to the pan along with the tomato purée, chopped tomatoes, lentils, stock cube, Marmite (if using), herbs and vinegar. Fill the tomato tin twice with water and add that to the pan, too. Stir together and let the mixture come to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for 1 hour, stirring every now and then to prevent it catching.

6 Meanwhile, cook your spaghetti in a large pan of salted, boiling water according to the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a small mugful of the pasta cooking water.

7 Remove and discard the rosemary sprig and bay leaves from the sauce. Mix a few large spoonfuls of the sauce into the cooked pasta, loosening with splashes of pasta water as needed.

8 Divide the pasta between 4 bowls and top with more sauce and a grating of cheese.