I did a poll on Instagram to see what recipes you wanted to see this year and vegetarian/vegan won slightly over meat dishes so I decided to create this Bolognese sauce with quinoa in place of beef. it was really tasty and I didn’t miss the meat in the sauce. if you are not keen on quinoa then use cooked lentils instead. I love spaghetti with beef Bolognese but I wanted to create and vegetarian version of it too. it can be vegan if you leave out the parmesan and use nutritional yeast instead. For extra flavour I added crispy sage rather than basil which is more traditional. I have also used some chipotle paste and flakes which is not traditional because it gives a great smoky flavour and I have also used smoked salt and brown miso paste. this is just a great way to mimic flavours you would get from meat. The taste was not spicy from the chilli at all it just adds more flavour.
recipe
- 2 cups cooked red and white quinoa or brown lentils
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 150ml wine – red or white will be fine
- 3 tbsp. tomato puree
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 5 dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 vegetable stock cube in 500ml water
- 2 tbsp. brown miso paste
- 1 tsp chipotle flakes
- 1 tsp chipotle paste
- 1 tsp smoked salt
- pepper
- sage
in a large pan add the chopped onion and oil and sautee until it starts to turn golden then add 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar and a tsp of brown sugar and caramelise. add the garlic and cooked quinoa or lentils then add the wine and cook off the alcohol for 1 minute then add the tomato puree and tinned tomatoes, in a bowl add the porcini mushrooms and stock cube and cover with 500ml boiling water let sit for 5 minutes then add the liquid carefully leaving the grit at the bottom of the bowl. chop up the mushrooms and add to the pan.vthen add the mio pasta, chilli paste/flakes and smoked salt and pepper. in another pan add some oil and fry some sage leaves until crispy (about 12) then take 6 and crush and mix into the sauce and save the rest for the top. cook pasta according to packaging then add a ladle or two of the stachy pasta water and toss the pasta in the sauce and serve with grated parmesan and crispy sage.
Don Urban says
Made this tonight and it was amazing. Loved it and will make it again. Thank you!
twiggstiudios says
thank you so glad you liked it xx