Hearty Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese (Vegan)

My lentil spaghetti bolognese is a twist on the classic. It's packed full of flavor and veggies making it the perfect meal for the whole family to enjoy. So when it comes to spaghetti bolognese there's typically two different options. So you can buy, you can go down to the shops and buy a pre-made spaghetti bolognese sauce. You can grab yourself some vegan minced meat, some spaghetti and whip that up in let's say 15 minutes. But that's not all we're going for today. We're looking for something that's made with love, something that tastes better, something that has a deeper richer flavor. So yes it might take a little bit longer but you can also hide some veggies in there and I know that if you try this recipe you will fall in love with it. You can also double it so you can free some or batch prepare it for a couple of days. So let's get started. Place a large pot on medium to high heat and add two tablespoons of olive oil. Dice one onion and add it to your pot. Mince three cloves of garlic and add them in cooking until they release an aroma and slightly start to brown. And now we'll move on to the carrots. So we'll just dice up two medium-sized carrots and add them to the pot as well. Now I'm just going to wash two stalks of celery and dice them up fine as well. I tend to save the leaves to use for stock later on so nothing goes to waste. And we'll just saute those veggies until they're soft which takes about five to seven minutes. Once they've softened we'll just add two cans of diced tomatoes and I pour half a cup of water in each can to get the rest of those tomato juices and pour that into the pot. Now we'll add in one heaped tablespoon of tomato paste, quarter cup of red wine and one bay leaf. I like to snap it in half just to get that extra flavor. I've just made my own little mix of Italian herbs here so I have rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, that's about it. So we'll just add one tablespoon of that into the mix as well. Followed by a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, half a teaspoon of coconut sugar, chili powder to taste, a pinch of salt and just give that a good mix. So now we'll just let that simmer for about half an hour. We'll pop the lid on, not completely, and we'll stir it every now and then. Now we just need to get some water on the boil to add the spaghetti in so I've just put that on high heat and we'll just add a pinch of salt and then once it's boiled we'll add the pasta in. So now we just cook the pasta until it's al dente which will take about eight to nine minutes and we'll just pop in the lentils into our sauce now. This is one can which is about 425 grams. Give them a good rinse before adding them to the pot. About a minute before the pasta finishes cooking we just need to add a quarter cup of nutritional yeast giving it a good stir into our sauce. Ah and don't forget to remove the bay leaf that we've been cooking with until this point. Season to taste. Now what you're left with is a rich bolognese sauce. Okay so once the pasta is cooked rather than draining it I'm just going to transfer it using my tongs just to get a little bit of that starchy water into our sauce so that it just thickens it up nicely and gives it a bit of extra moisture. Toss that pasta through the sauce until it's all well combined and serve straight away. My lentil spaghetti bolognese is hearty wholesome and filling. It's a great addition to your weekly meal rotation and it also freezes really well. I hope you enjoyed making this spaghetti bolognese in the kitchen with me today and you can find this recipe over on our website theminimalistvegan.com and we'll link to it in the description below for you. I also forgot to mention earlier that this is a budget-friendly meal as it serves up to six people or you can leave it over a couple of days as well to enjoy yourself and until next time happy cooking. You will fall... what's with the hands?