Lentil and Mushroom Bolognese

The girls I work with at my 9-5 job love and appreciate food (lucky for me) almost as much as I do! So lunch time is always a treat! Smelling the delicious meals as they warm up and asking “What’s for lunch?” is a ritual. A few weeks ago I smelt something particularly delicious as my colleague pulled her lunch from the microwave. “What’s for lunch?” I asked. She told me it was lentil and mushroom Bolognese. I was quite surprised at the answer and instantly intrigued. It smelt ah-mazing!

With my curiosity sparked, I set out to make lentil and mushroom bolognese this week and I’m pleased to tell you that it tastes as good as it smells! I didn’t think meatless bolognese could taste so good. While Mr Eat Canberra liked it, he said he would of preferred it with meat…. Of course he did, he’s a male! I didn’t do myself any favours when I proudly announced that we were having ‘meatless bolognese’ for dinner. If I didn’t tell him I don’t think he would have thought twice about it, at least not until he was half way through. Note to self, if your meat-eating other half likes their meat don’t tell tell them it’s meatless until after they’ve eaten it!

Ingredients list:

1 carrot, peeled, coarsely chopped

1 brown onion, peeled, 
coarsely chopped

2 celery stick, coarsely chopped

3 garlic cloves

2 1/2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme (use a teaspoon of dried thyme if you don’t have fresh)

4 fresh or dried bay leaves

4 large field mushrooms

1 cup French green lentils (use whatever dried lentils you have in the cupboard)

410g can rich diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock (if you’re not vegetarian use beef stock, it makes the dish richer)

2 cups tomato passata sauce

Pasta of choice

Finely grated parmesan cheese

Chopped fresh continental parsley leaves, to add to the sauce and to serve

What to do:

  1. Get your food processor out and process onion, carrot, celery and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped. Heat 11⁄2 tbs of the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion mixture and bay leaves. Cook, stirring, until soft. Transfer to a bowl.
  2. While the onion mix is cooking, process mushrooms in food processor until finely chopped. Don’t process them to much because you don’t want them to form a past. Heat remaining oil in pan over high heat. Cook mushrooms, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes.
  3. Stir onion mixture and lentils into mushroom. Stir in tomato, stock of your choice , passata, half of the chopped parsley and chopped thyme leaves. Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1-1.5hrs or until lentils are tender. Season well with salt and pepper.
  4. While the lentils are cooking, cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain.
  5. Top pasta with bolognese and sprinkle with parmesan and parsley.

Bon appétit!

TIP I’ve been on a mission to use up the bits and pieces I have in my pantry so I can save money and reduce wastage! So I served this with the half packed of wholemeal penne I found and I broke up the four dried wholemeal lasagna sheets that were sitting in a box. Extra healthy and I got rid of a box and a packet that had been sitting in the cupboard for way to long! Serve this dish with the pasta of your choice.

Amelia is the Founder and Editor of Eat Canberra and the Founder and Managing Director of Eat Canberra Food Tours. She's a qualified journalist, presenter, freelance writer and also runs a boutique communications agency working with small business owners on all things social media, content creation and marketing. She's taught cheesemaking classes, judged hospitality and tourism awards, completed the WSET Level 1 Award In Wines, loves to cook and has travelled to 23 countries. She's also passionate about mental health and has recently started studying to become a Counsellor.