Recipe: Easy Vegan Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese!

I’ve long had an issue with eating mushrooms, but of late I’ve started to incorporate them into my diet and I’m actually enjoying it! After our recent visit to Pieminister, my mushroom intake has definitely increased, and I’m so pleased to be able to share our recipe for Easy Vegan Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese with you today.

We’ve always loved cooking and baking, but since going vegan in January, our experimental side has really taken over in the kitchen. We are on a mission to recreate lots of our favourite meals, from vegan bolognese to vegan carbonara (this is currently a work in progress!), and not only is it interesting, it’s also a lot of fun!

Vegan cooking sometimes feels very scientific, and I kinda love that! It reminds me of studying my Chemistry A-Level and experimenting with different combinations, except there’s little chance of an explosion these days (but never say never, haha!). I love trying different things out, and mushrooms have definitely been our main focus of late.

When it comes to bolognese it’s really hard to replicate the ‘meaty’ texture once created by meat. We’ve tried red lentils (and I love including red lentils, because they’re so good for you, but they do taste slightly chalky…), we’ve tried soya and it was a little chewy and flavourless (maybe we need to work on this?) and when it came to mushrooms we were all a bit apprehensive.

I think the key to using mushrooms is flavour and technique. If there’s too much moisture and they’re chopped too finely, they can become very mushy. With regards to flavour, it’s all about herbs and spices, and since going vegan our spice rack is full to the brim with interesting flavours, I love it!

Mushroom vegan bolognese with basil on top

Molly joined me in the kitchen to test this recipe out, she adores getting involved and cooking along with us, as does George. I think it’s so important to get children involved in the cooking and baking process from a young age, it gives them life skills they’ll never regret learning for sure!

Easy Vegan Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp marmite

1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

1/2 tsp onion salt

1/2 tsp vegan bisto (the red one!)

1/2 tsp demerara sugar

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper (optional)

1 small onion (finely chopped)

300g mushrooms chopped into fairly small pieces (you can also whizz them very quickly in a food processor, but don’t go too smal1)

400g chopped tomatoes

300g spaghetti

Method

I’ve kept this as simple as possible, because that’s what makes it easy, right?

1. Pop a big pan of water on the hob and bring to a boil.

2. Add oil into a deep frying pan and add all the herbs and spices. Turn on the heat and give it a stir for a minute or so.

3. Add in the onions and cook them through (don’t burn them!).

4. Blitz (very quickly!) or chop up your mushrooms and add them to the pan. Keep stirring the mixture and make sure the mushrooms are covered in all the herbs and spices. Let this cook for a while without sticking to the pan, add more oil if required.

5. When the saucepan of water is boiling, add in a pinch of salt and pop the spaghetti in to cook.

6. Keep stirring the mushroom mixture and add in the tin of tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Add the sugar to the mixture. Add liquid smoke and pepper at this point, if you want to.

7. Let the mushroom mixture simmer away whilst the pasta is cooking.

8. When the pasta is cooked, check the mushroom mixture. If it’s looking a little dry, spoon some water from the pasta into it and mix through. Drain the pasta and pop it back into the saucepan.

9. Add the mushroom mixture to the spaghetti and serve.

10. Optional addition of basil, a squirt of pepper and/or nutritional yeast… Garnish it your way!

So there you have it, our recipe for an Easy Vegan Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese. I hope you try it out, and mostly I hope you love it!

You can also check out my vegan pancake recipe here. Don’t forget to check out We Made This Life and Cardiff Mummy Says for more easy vegan recipes!

Don’t forget to PinIt!

Easy Vegan Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients

Method

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply