Plant-Based Bolognese

No, I am not turning Vegan. But Netflix is mean/good to my diet. I started watching all these documentaries about meat and milk lately and following the example of my Vegan besties Ailine and Sophia, I decided to become "4-days-a-week-vegan"  to lower my meat intake. I stopped having cow milk, cheese and yoghurt in my fridge as well.

Bolognese Pasta, is a recipe I repeat every month. But how to make it without beef or minced mixed meat? I talked to Ailine, searched the net, read some magazines and decided for a mix of Walnuts, Pecans & Mushrooms as meat substitute. After testing my recipe a couple of times, I found out the best way to make this sauce and you wont notice there is no meat in it!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Walnuts
​1/4 cup Pecans
​4 Mushrooms, diced
1 big Onion , diced
3 Garlic cloves, diced
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 cup Carrots, peeled and grated
1 tbsp Tomato Paste 
1 can (4oo gr) crushed Tomatoes
​1/2 liter Vegetable Stock
1 tbsp Sugar
4 dried Bay Leaves
Fresh Oregano
Salt & Pepper 
12 Cherry Tomatoes
Dried Juniper Berries
DELYSOY 100% Soya Bean Fettuccine
​Parmesan cheese (vegan or regular)

First of all, turn your oven on. 200 degrees Celsius. Once you diced & grated, throw those nuts in the food processor until they are as small as minced meat.

Heat the oil in a pot and fry the onions & garlic until they are transparent. Stir the mushrooms & nuts in and let them fry for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft. Add the carrots, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, stock, sugar (to neutralize the acid of the tomato), bay leaves and oregano and stir well. When it boils, close the lid and set the heat to low and let it simmer for 2 hours. Set an alarm for every 30 minutes to check and stir. Dont forget to add salt and pepper at the end.

I cook this sauce a day in advance. I love, LOVE, how bolognese or lasagna tastes the day after. But you can eat it right away. In an oven-proof sheet, bake the cherry tomatoes in halves, sprinkled with olive oil, salt and juniper berries, for 8 minutes and let them rest. Add half of them in the sauce and use the rest for decoration.

I used DELYSOY 100% soya bean fettuccine as I shouldnt eat gluten. I was surprised by how good these soya bean pasta tasted.. nice nice nice. I would definately will try the rest of their sortiment. Serve the pasta, cover with sauce, add some baked tomatoes on top and sprinkle with your favorite vegan parmesan or regular parmesan to add an extra oomph!