Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese or ‘Ragu’.

I recently cooked this dish for two friends who are both mothers of hungry teenagers and they both asked me for the recipe so it can't have been a bad rendition. My original inspiration came from Claudia Roden's superb 'The Food of Italy' (Vintage) but it is years since I've referred to her text and this version contains no meat or dairy ingredients so is good to serve to vegetarians and vegans.

 
vegan bolognese ingredients

Ingredients: (Serves 6)
Large Spanish onion x 1
Sticks of celery x 2
Medium sized carrots x 2
Chestnut mushrooms x 300g
690g Jar of passata x 1
Cloves of garlic x 3
220g packs of plant mince x 2
1 dessert spoon of brown rice miso paste
Red wine x 375 ml
2 tablespoons of olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
Bronze die cast dry spaghetti x 500g

Method
Add the olive to a thick bottomed casserole dish and finely chop the onions, mushrooms and celery and add those as well. Peel and coarsely grate the carrots and add those along with the peeled and crushed garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook that mixture on a hob on a medium heat – stirring frequently – for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the onions are translucent but not browned. Add the plant mince and continue to stir the mixture for a further 5 minutes until everything has melded together well.

Now add the miso paste, passata and red wine and turn the heat down to a level that allows it to simmer gently for 90 minutes with intermittent stirring.

Boil the spaghetti as instructed on the packet until al dente. (Note that De Cecco Spaghetti No. 12 as pictured is vegan - it contains no egg). You can a desert spoon of oat crème fresh to the Bolognese sauce before serving if you have it hand. Divide the cooked and drained spaghetti into equal portions and serve in shallow bowls with a generous helping of the sauce on top.

 
vegan bolognese cooking

I serve that with grated (rennet free) parmesan for vegetarians and nutritional yeast (available in all good health food shops) for vegans.

 

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