Vegetarian Pasta Bolognese

To start things off for the Tomato Festival, I wanted to post a classic tomato recipe, but such a good one: a vegetarian pasta bolognese. I love an intense bolognese sauce made with lots of veggies, soya mince and quality tomato passata served with lovely pasta. I let my sauce simmer for quite a while to get the desired results, and in the end it was so good. Actually the sauce is vegan, so if you use vegan pasta and substitute the pasta cheese for serving, this meal is fully vegan.

Ingredients

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

2 carrots

Olive oil

2 tomatoes

200 g baby button mushrooms

500 g tomato passata

1 cup dried soya mince

3 tbsp tomato purée

Smoked paprika to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Vegetable stock extract to taste

Pasta of your choice

Vegetarian pasta cheese for serving

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cut the carrots into small cubes. Start cooking the onion in olive oil until soft and slightly browned. Then add the carrots for a while followed by the garlic.

Slice the mushrooms thinly and also add them to the pan. Cook for a few minutes and then cover with the tomato passata. Let simmer under the lid for quite a while.

Cook the soya mince in the meanwhile and add it later to the sauce, when it's about halfway done.

Season the sauce with tomato purée, smoked paprika, salt, ground black pepper and vegetable stock extract to taste.

Cook the pasta and serve it with the bolognese sauce and vegetarian pasta cheese.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog