Vegan Lentil BologneseThis easy recipe for vegan lentil bolognese was a big hit at a recent pot-luck party – even with the non-vegans!

Just a tip – I always use Rao’s Homemade pasta sauces as they are delicious, contain natural ingredients and don’t have added sugar.

Ingredients

  • handful of dried porcini mushrooms
  • medium onion
  • 2 sun-dried tomatoes
  • 3 olives
  • 1 teaspoon chile pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large carrot
  • 4 oz fresh mushrooms
  • 3/4 cup green/puy lentils
  • 2 cups arrabbiata pasta sauce (or can of chopped tomatoes)

Method

  1. Soak the porcini mushrooms in 1/2 cup of hot water
  2. Chop the onion and mince the sun-dried tomatoes, olives and garlic
  3. Add 1 cup of water to saucepan and add the onion, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, chile pepper flakes, oregano and garlic
  4. Simmer until water reduced
  5. Slice the carrot and fresh mushrooms
  6. Add cup of boiled water, carrot, fresh mushrooms, porcini mushrooms plus their water, green lentils to pan
  7. Simmer until lentils are tender, adding water gradually if mixture begins to dry out
  8. Add arrabbiata sauce to pan, stir and heat through
  9. Serve with pasta of your choice

Green Fact: lentils have one of the lowest carbon footprints of any food at just 0.9 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per kilo compared to 39.2 tons for beef.