Mushroom Bolognese Sauce

This no-meat “meat” sauce is made with all the classic bolognese sauce ingredients, but switch out the meat for minced mushrooms and you’ve got a delicious vegan bolognese sauce on your hands! Aside from using it as a pasta sauce, it works beautifully in a classic simple lasagna layered with vegan mozzarella and parmesan.

The recipe below makes a very very large batch of sauce, which is the perfect amount to build a large 7 layer lasagna (we usually use a 16″ x 13″ pan). If you end up making the recipe as stated and have lots of leftovers, don’t fret! You can freeze any remaining sauce that you don’t use that night and have a quick dinner ready to go at a later date. Cook smarter not harder;)

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil

2 large or 4 medium sweet onions

2-3 large carrots (~235g)

6 celery stalks (~225g)

680g brown cremini or white mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup white wine

1360mL passata

5 cups water (6 cups when making this sauce to use in lasagna)

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

1. Finely mince the onions, celery, and carrots and set aside. Separately, mince the mushrooms. You may choose to use a knife or food processor.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Once warmed, add the onions, carrots, celery, and a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook for 10-15 min, stirring occasionally.
3. To the pan, mix in the mushrooms, parsley, and another generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. Stirring occasionally, cook the mixture until the mushrooms have released their water and most has cooked off, about 8-10 min.
4. Add white wine and cook off until it has evaporated, about 7-10min.
5. Mix in the passata and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to allow sauce to simmer with lid slightly ajar for between 45min and 1 hour. The sauce will thicken during this time.
6. Add additional salt and pepper to taste if needed.

I hope you give this recipe a try and love it as much as we do! If you make this recipe and post of a picture of it, feel free to tag me on instagram @alessiaeats, I’d love to see!