N.B: It is important you follow this recipe strictly! My friend tried this recipe and his family did not like the food. Why? It turned out that he researched, i.e. he spent 1 hour reading several vegan recipes (including mine) and picked the best bits to make his own version. For instance, he cooked the Soffritto 20 minutes which is an auto-failure and a major No-no. That is why his food tasted mehh. I told him I have been researching vegan ragu bolognese, not 1 hour, but 5 years. I have read countless Bolognese recipes and picked the best bits, during 5 years. Therefore, only after you have cooked my version once, you can modify and make your own version. But the first time, do not deviate. Trust me on this, because 5 years of research, beats 1 hour of research? I have already done multi year research, so you dont have to.
This is one of the vegan recipes I and Little Woman are most happy with. Often, the vegan version of a dish, lack something. There is something amiss, so you are not really satisified. But this vegan recipe has been perfected after years of trials, and it now has a very full and aromatic taste which makes you not miss “real” meat one bit! The optimal vegan version of the meat Ragu Bolognese dish, is completely solved. You can stop searching, no need to look further for a better recipe. We have served this dish to many meat eaters, and all are surprised it is pure vegan and expressed their highest appreciation.
-I can’t believe it is vegan, it is even tastier than meat Bolognese!
-This is the first time ever, I don’t want ketchup with my bolognese, it is just not needed?!-The best dish I ate in Italy, was a wild boar pasta. How it tasted? Hmmm…. It tasted quite similar to your vegan ragu Bolognese pasta.
Meat eaters
The Ragu Bolognese comes from the province of Bologna in Italy, in the 18th century. Traditionally, it was a meat sauce cooked for a long time, with only salt and pepper. Because we are cooking a vegan version, we need to change things to get extra ooomph to boost the taste, even beyond the meat version.
This recipe will include two variations. You can make the basic vegan Ragu Bolognese that I usually do. Sometimes you want to keep it simple and let a few select ingredients do the talking. Or, if you prefer, you can use the enhanced version by Little Woman that includes a few more ingredients and aromatics to bring about a more complex taste. Both versions are great and definitely deserve a trial!
How to get a rich taste in vegan Ragu Bolognese without the shortcut of animal ingredients? There are a few tips and tricks.
- As I have explained in another post, it is crucial with a correct foundation. Without the secret Soffritto Recipe it is impossible to cook a tasty Ragu Bolognese. This is the key.
- Use a high quality vegetarian mince. Our favorite is Anamma’s mouldable soy mince, but use what is available in your location. It is also possible to replace with lentils, which will be very tasty too, but less meaty. The mince should preferably be quite neutral so it does not color the dish with a strange taste.
- Avoid putting raw ingredients directly on top of veggies already in the pan, because ingredients will be tastier when fried directly, due to the Maillard reaction. You can push the veggie mix to the side in the pot to free up space and add a little extra oil for the new ingredient. If you are worried that the existing ingredients will be getting overcooked and burned, you can try the trick of temporarily sliding the pot to the side so half of the pot is outside the oven plate, while you are frying the new ingredient.
[recipe title=”Vegan bolognese” servings=”10″ preptime=”30 min” cooktime=”1h 30 min” difficulty=”Medium” rating=”★★★★★” description=”Flavorful vegan ragu bolognese”]
[recipe-image image=”https://allergician.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1216798384-huge.jpg”]
Our dish looks very similar to this, but will replace this image with a new one, once we cook this the next time.
[recipe-ingredients]
Basic Ragu Bolognese
– 4-6 yellow onions (800g)
– 800 g carrots
– 1 package of celery, ~600 g
– 10 garlic cloves
– 800 g vegan mince, OR lentils
– 250 g mushrooms
– Optional: 2 dl red wine, OR non-alcoholic cooking wine
– Optional: dried mushrooms
– 800 g tomato passata (canned and strained, not chopped tomatoes)
– 4 tbsp tomato puree
– 2-3 dl chopped black olives
– Olive oil
– Salt and pepper
Optional enhancement
– 2 red peppers
– 2 red hot chili peppers
– 1-2 vegetable stock cubes
– Vegetable fond
– Rosemary, fresh or dried
– Paprika or dried chili flakes
– Balsamic vinegar
– Dark soy sauce
Serve with
– 800 g gluten-free pasta
– Green salad, e.g. lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber or a more elaborate The Allergician’s green raw food salad if you have the time 🙂
– Grated parmesan cheese, vegan or non-vegan
– A nice glass of red wine
[/recipe-ingredients]
[recipe-directions]
1. Use the carrots, onion and celery to cook the soffritto according to the secret recipe.
2. When the soffritto has cooked about half its time, finely chop the garlic and add to the pot. Push the vegetable mix to the side and fry the garlic for a while, before mixing everything together, just as described above, in tips and tricks no 3.
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2.5. Optional step for enhanced version: Add finely chopped red hot chili pepper together with the garlic
3. Fry the tomato puree in olive oil for a few minutes to bring out the flavors, before mixing it with the veggie mix. Frying puree is important to caramelize the puree and make it sweet. In this way, you don’t need honey or sugar to sweeten the Ragu. Raw puree directly in the pot tastes pungent and is not fun to work with. Compare the taste of the fried puree vs the raw puree.
4. Slice mushrooms and add to the pot and let fry for a while.
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4.5. optional step for enhanced version: add roughly chopped peppers and rosemary
5. Add the strained tomatoes (tomato passata) and wine if you use wine. Fresh raw tomatoes tend to be a bit sour, so try to use canned tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and bring the lid on.
Chopped tomatoes tend to make the Bolognese more chunky. If you prefer chunky sauce, use chopped tomatoes. Strained tomatoes make the Bolognese more smooth.
6. Add the dried mushrooms if you have them. A famous vegan restaurant has a secret to boost the taste: they add overnight soaked dried mushrooms and the water. The dried mushrooms add a ton of umami.
7. Add the minced vegan meat. If you want to, you can fry it for a bit to start the maillard reaction.
7.5. optional step for enhanced version: picky meat eaters often say vegan mince lack taste. If they say so, you can use this
vegan mince recipe to silence them.
8. Add the chopped black olives. If you dont like olives, you can half the amount and finely chop them. It will not taste olives when cooked for this long time, it will only add more umami and make the flavor, more complete.
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8.5. optional step for enhanced version: add 1-2 vegetable stock cubes, but taste the sauce first, because the olives could have made it salty enough
9. Cook another 30 minutes before it is done. Add salt and pepper to taste.
–
9.5. optional step for enhanced version: Add aromatics as per your taste: vegetable fond, dark soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, paprika/ chili flakes
10. Enjoy your meal! 🙂
[/recipe-directions]
[/recipe]
[recipe-notes]
Serving tips: Serve with gluten-free pasta which you have cooked as per the instructions on the package and green salad. Grate lot of vegan parmesan cheese on top of the plate.
A secret tips: If you have picky hardcore meat eaters as dinner guests, you can use the traditional, dairy Parmesan cheese. If you grate enough of it, so much umami will be added the meat eaters will swear it is a real meat Ragu Bolognese.
To repeat, three most important factors to succeed with this recipe:
– Follow my Soffritto recipe strictly. Do NOT deviate.
– Good vegan mince, we very strongly recommend “Anamma Formbara Färs”. Do not use Quorn, Soy, or anything else if you have access to Anamma.
– Lot of grated Parmesan.
The _most_ important factor, is to follow my Soffritto recipe exactly.
[/recipe-notes]
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