Vegan Bolognese by Manuela Renner

Today on the blog we have a guest Manuela Renner from VeganKinder.Com. I love sharing recipes from other mums.

Here is her recipe of a family favourite dish-Spaghetti Bolognese. 

Any kind of Pasta/Spaghetti is a favourite amongst kids. With very little preparation and cooking time this is a very easy to make healthy and tasty dish. The below mentioned method is for a dish called vegetarian bolognaise. A healthy, nutritious and most of all a delight for veggie lovers. Please note that adult supervision is required if you want to do it yourself, so ask your mom or an elder sibling to help you out.

This dish has a total preparation time of 40 – 45 minutes and it serves roughly about 4 people.

Ingredients:

• 300g Spaghetti (wheat/corn base)
• Mix veggies
  • 1 red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 – 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped/pasty
  • 2 chillies, finely chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper (capsicum), chopped
  • 1 cup button mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 x 400 ml plain tomato puree can without salt (tomatoes can be chopped and pureed in a blender too)
• Mix Spices & Herbs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tbsp. fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, parsley, roughly diced)
  • 1 – 2 tbsp. dried basil
  • 1 – 2 tbsp. chilli flakes
  • ½ – 1 tbsp. cayenne pepper
  • Pepper and salt to taste
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 cup brown lentils
• Pot of boiling hot water
• 1 – 3 tbsp. olive oil

Directions/Steps:

1. Boil a pot of hot water and cook the spaghetti as per the packet’s instructions and then drain the water and mix a tbsp. of olive oil in it.
2. Take a frying pan pour about 2 tbsp. olive oil and toss the chopped onions in the pan. Let them cook for 2 minutes on medium heat until the chopped onion is visibly soft.
3. Add the chopped garlic cloves and chillies to the mix and toss it to mix equally. Let the mixture cook for another minute and then add the red bell pepper and mushrooms.
4. Let the mixture cook until the mushrooms have become softer. Follow it up by adding dried brown lentils and carefully mixing the contents thoroughly.
5. No carefully, open the tomato puree can (or blended chopped tomato puree) and pour the contents in the mixture. Also add bay leaves and brown sugar at this point. Mix the contents well into a sauce.
6. Simmer the sauce over low heat. Keep adding water and reducing the sauce until the lentils are cooked and have softened enough to be edible.
7. Next, take out the bay leaves and add all the spices and herbs mentioned above while mixing the sauce.
8. Add the boiled spaghetti in to the sauce, tossing and mixing altogether until it is all set and even.
9. Serve hot. Enjoy your meal.

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