This is a quick and easy one pot vegan red lentil bolognese recipe that’s ideal for a hearty weeknight family meal. Full of flavour and great over pasta or jacket potatoes - this quick and tasty weeknight recipe will become a regular at your dinner table.

The weather here in Melbourne has started to cool down. Ac couple of weekends ago, we cleaned out our heater vents in preparation for the wintery weather and got ready to use our central gas heater. Although it’s only May, over the past month, the temperature dropped down to the low teens. I’m not a fan of using the heater if it means we are walking around in a t-shirt and shorts but I don’t believe we need to wear beanies and gloves inside the house either. There is a happy in-between!

With the change in weather, I need to adapt my dinner recipe repertoire. Bowls and salad recipes will leave our rotation for the next few months. I will be cooking and eating more hearty meals. I hope to share some of these recipes with you over the next few months. My go to winter recipes include soups, curries, pies and pasta sauces.

Since the birth of our first child, we eat a diet consisting of organic fruit and vegetables. We buy our fruit and vegetables from Organic Angels on a weekly basis. We only eat what’s in season! I love eating what’s in season - the food looks and tastes so different from what you find in the supermarkets. It also challenges us to discover new recipes to suit the produce that’s in season. Previously, we used to go to local supermarket and I would gravitate to the same vegetables each time: zucchini, carrots, broccoli, mushroom and beans. I would also prepare the same meals every week. Nowadays, we are eating a more varied diet that includes: rainbow chard, kale, broad beans, beetroot, heirloom carrots and squash - when in season!

Before we took the plunge with a plant-based diet, a meat based spaghetti bolognese was on our regular meal rotation. It’s a meal that simple to make ahead of time, packed full of flavour and as an added bonus it freezes well. Once we moved to plant-based diet, there was a lot of trial and error to find a good substitute for meat based spaghetti bolognese. We tried pea protein mince, soy protein mince and other legumes but found that the mushy texture of red lentils was our favourite. Red lentils don’t hold their shape as well as brown and green lentils, this means that I don’t have to cook the bolognese sauce for as long - very important factor for a time poor mum.

Ingredients (serves 8)

1 brown onion (finely diced)

2 cloves of garlic

2 carrots (finely diced)

3 celery stalks (finely diced)

1 zucchini (finely diced)

1 cup of dried red lentils (rinsed and drained)

1 jar of Passata

1 can of tomatoes (I normally use diced Italian tomatoes)

1 cup of vegetable stock (my homemade vegetable stock recipe using vegetable scraps)

2 tbsp of Nutritional Yeast

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp of Italian Herbs

Seasoning of salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a pot, add the brown onion and some salt. Cook until the onion is translucent.

2. Add the garlic, make sure you don’t burn the garlic, and mix with the onion

3. Add the carrots and celery to the pot and cook till softened.

4. Add zucchini to the pot and cook for another 5 minutes

5. Add the lentils to the pot and make sure you mix well and then pour in the vegetable stock

6. Add the jar of passata and can of tomato to the pot. Season the sauce with the nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar and Italian herbs.

7. Let the sauce simmer for 40-60 minutes till the red lentil is cooked.

8. Normally at this stage, I use my immersion blender in the sauce - a couple of quick blitz, giving the sauce a creamier consistency.

9. Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packaging. Plate the pasta equally across the four bowls and spoon the lentil bolognese sauce over the pasta and sprinkle some extra nutritional yeast as a substitute for cheese.

TIP: Normally I will freeze the other half of sauce and use it out for a quick weeknight meal. Great when you are having one of the those nights where you can’t be bothered cooking or short for time.