meat free quinoa bolognese

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.