How to Make a Vegan Bolognese Sauce

Usually I don't use this kind of soy meat, I rather make a bolognese sauce with lentils, much easier, but I saw the packet in the supermarket, and I like to make lasagne with bolognese sauce (please do not spell it bolognaise!), so I went for it.

I soaked the textured soy with 500 ml of vegetables stock, it tripled in size.

In the meantime I cleaned one large carrot, 2 celery stalks with leaves, 2 shallots, 2 garlic cloves and some Italian parsley.

I chopped the veggies and sautéed them with olive oil,

I added the textured soy and a glass of red wine, then 1 800 ml can of Italian chopped tomatoes, and 3 tbsp of tomato puree. At this point I let the sauce simmer for a couple of hours, adding salt and black pepper from time to time, tasting it to see if it needed more. Soy protein is very low in fat, so I added more olive oil because bolognese needs a percentage of fat to taste good.

It also needed more wine, but I finished the bottle. My husband had opened a nice 10 years old Australian red, to air. I put some of it in too, even if he looked at me badly. That wine was to good to cook with!

But just a little... and it made the sauce so nice :-). In the end he agreed with me, and then the wine needed to be drunk, or used! No other herbs or spices are used in the traditional bolognese sauce, in fact the cuisine of Bologna uses very little or no herbs, so please don't add oregano, chili, etc. to a bolognese sauce: go for more red wine, black pepper, salt, and (as this is vegan) olive oil to enhance the taste. If you don't use wine add more tomato puree.

Ready!!! Just don't use it with spaghetti please: spaghetti bolognese is not right, use it for tagliatelle, lasagne, or short pasta :-). Can also be used to fill pies or with polenta.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©