• About
  • contact
  • Advertise

Picklebums

Activities, recipes, free printables and life with four kids

  • Home
  • Activities for kids
  • family food
  • parenting
  • Printables
  • farm tales
  • shop

Lentil-ese – Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese

Posted on September 5, 2016 20 Comments

Bolognaise?
Or bolognese?

Regardless of how you spell it, I am pretty sure this version isn’t anything like the good people of Bologna make. So technically I should call it something entirely different but ‘I can’t believe there’s no meat in it bolognese’ is kinda a mouthful, so I’m sticking with ‘Lentil-ese’.

The name sums it up perfectly, it is vegetarian spaghetti bolognese sauce with lentils instead of meat. I admit I was skeptical when I first tried it, no way would it be the same, and honestly, it isn’t quite the same as a meat based sauce, but it is pretty darn close!

Lentil-ese - vegetarian spaghetti bolognese. You won't believe this easy sauce has no meat in it!

I’d never cooked with red lentils before I tried this pasta sauce, but now I use them all the time! They blend well with just about anything and are a great way to bulk out mince meat dishes to make them budget friendly and super filling.

I don’t use any strict measurements for this recipe. Much like regular bolognese sauce, you just chuck in whatever you like and cook it up. So the quantities in the recipe are just a rough idea, feel free play around with them. Same goes for the ingredients, play around and add whatever veggies you like.

Lentil-ese – Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese
Author: picklebums.com
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 15 mins
Serves: serves 6
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup dried red lentils
  • A tbsp olive oil
  • A medium onion finely diced
  • Garlic – as much or as little as you like
  • 1 tin diced tomatoes (400gm)
  • 2-3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 zucchini, grated.
  • A handful of mushrooms chopped.
  • Your choice of herbs – basil, oregano and chives are our favourites.
Instructions
  1. Pre-cook the lentils by adding them to a pot of water on the stove and boiling them for five minutes, or microwaving them for a similar amount of time.
  2. The lentils are ready when they are puffed up, softened and light orange in colour.
  3. In a large pot or pan heat the olive oil, and cook the garlic and onions until they are soft and translucent.
  4. Add the tin of of tomatoes, lentils, the grated zucchini and chopped mushrooms and cook gentle over a low heat.
  5. Add one or two table spoons of tomato paste depending on how tomato-ey you want the sauce.
  6. Let the sauce summer over a low heat for around an hour, or longer – the best sauce cooks for hours, but I never have that much time!
  7. Stir in your choice of herbs about five minutes before you are ready to serve, and serve with your favourite pasta.
3.5.3208

 
Please note: this recipe uses Australian measurements and cooking temperatures, if you need to convert measurements or temperatures you can download my handy dandy kitchen conversion cheat sheet here.

vegetarian bolognese

You can add meat to this recipe if you like. I often add 200 grams of minced beef along with the lentils. The meat gives it a richer, more silky texture and taste, but it is delicious with or without the meat.

This vegetarian bolognese sauce freezes really well, so make a double batch and stock one in the freezer for later!

What vegetarian meals do your kids love?

I first shared this post back in 2012 (which is why some of the comments have such old dates on them). This recipe is still a family favourite, so it was time for an update and reshare.

282shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Filed Under: Family Food Tagged With: dinner, food, vegetarian

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Tam says

    Yay – thanks for sharing! We LOVE bolognaise around here (ha! Spell check tried to change that to bolognese!) but are trying to eat less red meat, so this is perfect.

    Reply
  2. limor says

    Love it kate, thanks!!! going to try it out later in the week! xx

    Reply
  3. Amanda Kendle says

    I saw this on your monthly plan and was wondering about it. Now I’m not wondering, I’m going to make it for dinner tonight! Sounds yummy and easy! Thank you :-)

    Reply
  4. tahlia - the parenting files says

    you just inspired me to make my red lentil dahl… well when i read this originally it was about 3pm so I made it then :) xx

    Reply
    • katef says

      Oooh do you have your dahl recipe on your blog?
      Have been pondering whether my kids would eat dahl….

      Reply
      • tahlia - the parenting files says

        I don’t actually kate but I will put it up as a post this week and let you know :) It is really yummy!!! and in my thermomix takes about 20 minutes! xx

        Reply
  5. Kylie says

    Looks yummo Kate! Did the gaggle of children enjoy it?

    Reply
    • katef says

      3 our of 4 kids eat this…. one still refuses spaghetti bolognese in all forms. But 3 out of 4 is a win in this house! LOL

      Reply
  6. Deb says

    I do lasagne with brown lentils – it even looks the same! For some reason I hadn’t thought of bolognaise. And I just happen to have a pack of lentils in the pantry.

    We have fish one night a week and with our own chickens we have eggs one night and chicken another night. I try to have at least one night vegetarian and then you add in leftovers and takeaway night we have it mostly covered.

    Reply
    • katef says

      Oh how I wish I could convince my girls to eat eggs… such a cheap and easy meal!

      Reply
      • Deb says

        My girls seem to be little salt addicts – I can convince them to eat just about anything by adding a little bit of chicken stock powder. Our easiest ever quiche recipe is all the veges from the bottom of the fridge, softened on the stove or food processor. Milk and eggs with a touch of stock powder and herbs, plus 1/3 cup self-raising flour.
        Put veges into a well oiled dish, pour eggs over and through and bake.

        Reply
  7. Trish says

    Yum, I add lentils to my bolognaise not the meat to the lentils.
    Ps my boys only just learnt to eat eggs….so glad.

    Reply
  8. [email protected] A game of balance says

    I have been looking at this recipe every Sunday while writing menus…every Sunday for about 2 months. It is currently simmering on the stove and smells delicious.

    Thanks for the great idea.

    Reply
  9. Tanyia says

    Just finished making this – it is so good. I think I might prefer it to the meat version I have made for years . Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  10. Margaret says

    Wow!
    This was A-MA-ZING! My kids ate it up!
    I changed a few things and blogged about it, but totally gave you all the credit for the recipe’s yumminess!
    http://twointhenestmama.blogspot.com/2012/06/picklebums-lentil-ese-vegetarian.html

    Thanks so much!!
    Margaret
    Two in the Nest

    Reply
  11. Topfivemum says

    Fab recipes and general parenting website. So pleased I stumbled across you via Instagram! Thanks for the inspiration xx

    Reply
  12. Tara says

    What size can of tomatoes do you use? 14.5? 28 oz? It’s cut off in the recipe.

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      It’s a 400gm tin of tomatoes, so that’s 14.5 oz :)

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Super Easy Zucchini Bake - picklebums.com says:
    March 5, 2013 at 1:32 pm

    […] yet another meal of spag bol. This works just as well with a meat based sauce as it does with our ‘lentil-ese’ and I think it would be just as lovely with a plain tomato and herb sauce […]

    Reply
  2. Frugal Pantry Pulses says:
    August 6, 2014 at 5:31 pm

    […] topped with home-made baked beans, or nachos. Lentils are made into a tasty lentil loaf or a bolognaise sauce to be enjoyed with pasta or in a lasagne. I also hide pulses in baked goods like chickpea chocolate […]

    Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Home » Lentil-ese – Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese
welcome
pinterestfacebooktwitterinstagram

Search around a bit…

You might also like…

Five Cheeky Monkeys and a Crocodile! Free printable puppetsFive Cheeky Monkeys and a Crocodile! Free printable puppets

Printable Puppets – Five Cheeky Monkeys… and a Crocodile!

Free printable play dough mats - print all of our play dough mats for loads of play dough fun!

Fabulous Free Printable Play Dough Mats

Find our printable puppets here Find our easy art activities here find our easy dinner recipes here

Find Activities by Age

  • Baby play
  • Toddler Fun
  • Preschooler Fun
  • School Kids Fun
  • Fun for Everyone

Subscribe to our newsleter

Find posts by month

Browse all my crazy categories

Copyright © 2021 • Powered by WordPress
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Home
  • contact
  • advertise
  • Privacy Policy