Description
An easy, hearty and rich lentil bolognese recipe that is happily vegan – perfect to serve over pasta, for Sunday meal prep, or to batch cook to fill the freezer!
Ingredients
Scale
- 5g (1/4 oz) dried mushrooms
- light oil
- 1 brown onion
- 1 celery stick
- 1 large carrot
- sea salt
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp sundried tomato paste
- 1/2 tbsp miso paste
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp red wine
- 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 200g (7 oz) dried green lentils
- 1 x 400g (14 oz) can chopped tomatoes
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Pour 500ml (2 1/2 cups) boiling water over the dried mushrooms and set aside.
- Heat a generous splash of light oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Peel and finely chop the onion, celery and carrot before gently frying them with a pinch of sea salt for 10 minutes or so until soft and starting to brown lightly.
- Peel and grate or mince in the garlic, cooking for a further minute until aromatic.
- Stir in the sundried tomato paste, miso and dried herbs. Cook for another few minutes, again until aromatic.
- Stir in the red wine and balsamic vinegar, followed by the lentils. Stir until the lentils are well coated with the soffrito mix.
- Strain the mushrooms and set aside. Add the mushroom soaking water and the tinned tomatoes to the pan, using a little mushroom water to wash any remaining tomato juices from the inside of the tin.
- Finely chop the mushrooms and stir them into the pan.
- Bring the pan to the boil and season generously with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to low and leave to gently blip away for 1 hour, stirring occasionally (see notes).
- Season to taste before serving stirred through pasta and topped with vegetarian or vegan parmesan, if liked.
Notes
I like my lentils to still have a little bite to them, but if you’d prefer them to be a bit softer cook the bolognese for a further half an hour, adding water as needed.