Based on a recommendation from T over at Blog-of-Nathan, I bought some Planet Organic Vegetarian Mince last week. I’m not usually one for mock meat products, I use them every so often but they aren’t really a staple in my vegan diet, but I stumbled across the box when we were checking out the new organic grocery in town so I thought I would buy it and give it a go. I didn’t actually take photos of the progress of this recipe because to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting it to be that good. Well, boy was I surprised! Lucky it was good, because I made a GIANT batch of the stuff. I’ve got masses of the stuff stored in the freezer now, but I don’t know if it was last very long because I’m pretty sure I’m going to eat the whole lot in a matter of days.. this bolognese is just that good! Beware, the amounts below make a massive quantity. Use your discretion for a smaller batch.
Mock Mince Vegan Bolognese
Ingredients:
1tbs olive oil
1 Leek, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small red chili, finely chopped
1 carrots, chopped
250g button mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup vegetable stock
4 large cans of chopped tomatoes
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 packet planet organic vegetarian mince
Fresh basil
Pasta of your choice
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, add the garlic, chili, leek, carrot and mushrooms and cook for 5 – 10 minutes, or until vegetables are soft. Add the red wine and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, dried herbs, sugar, salt and pepper, mix well and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add the vegetarian mince, straight from the box, mix well, and simmer for a further 10 minutes (minimum, after this stage you can leave the pot cooking for as long as you wish, the longer you leave it, the more delicious it will be!). 5 minutes before serving, add the fresh basil. Serve with pasta of your choice.
yay! I’m so glad it was an edible success!
we weren’t brave enough to use all of the mince, but you have inspired us to make more!
Out of interest, did you make the “mince” up separately? I just added the dried stuff directly into my sauce, I figured then it would rehydrate with the tomato sauce and veg stock etc instead of plain water..
Hi and could I just check before doing the shopping if the 4 large cans of tomatoes for the Bolognaise are the 800gms size or smaller.
Many thanks.
Hi Kevin, Yes I used the large 800g sized tins for this recipe, and ended up making a HUGE quantity of sauce. If you wanted to use 400g cans, just halve the rest of the recipe so that your quantities match. You would still end up with at least 4 serves of sauce. How did you go with the lasagne recipe?
Thanks Nikki and the Lasagne was very nice but I’ll add more chilli next time..bit of a chilli freak I’m afraid.
Went down well with a lovely Vegan red from Yellowtail.
Thanks again.
Just finished making the Bolognese sauce and it’s yummy.
I used all the same quantities except only 2 x 800gm cans and a half packet of mince and I’ll get 6 large serves from that. Oh as usual it’s got chilli in it so a day in the fridge and it will be just superb with a salad and garlic bread plus a little red wine.
Thanks and cheers.