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Hi! I’m finally back from my Spring and Summer Hiatus with a quick recipe for one of my favorite quick meals: Shortcut Vegan Bolognese. This is basically the easiest vegan bolognese dish one can make as it requires no prep work unless you count opening a bag of frozen mushrooms prep work, ha! And, to be clear, this is not meant to be an authentic dish or anything like that. It’s just simple and delicious.
What makes this recipe different than my other ones is that specific products are recommended. I personally wouldn’t substitute anything unless these products aren’t accessible in your area. They are just, in my humble opinion, are the best for what we’re making.
Oh and these are products I buy with my own money.
- New Seasons Fresh Bucatini Pastaor Orecchiette
- Woodstock Frozen Shiitake or Frozen Mixed Mushrooms
- Rao’s Traditional Pasta Marinara Sauce
- Beyond Meat’s Beyond Beef – one whole pack
- Italian Basil from my garden or a simple Trader Joe’s plant. If you can, even better to get basil at your local supermarket or nursery.
- Good olive oil – there are so many kinds
So how do we make this Shortcut Vegan Bolognese? Gosh, it’s so easy.
First, we boil our water in a large stock pot because we’re using 2 boxes of the bucatini. While the water starts boiling, we start working on our pasta sauce.
Bring a big sauce pan to medium heat and add some olive oil. When the oil is hot, cook the Beyond Beef and frozen shiitake mushrooms until they are a little browned.
When the vegan ground beef is browned and crumbly and the mushrooms are cooked down, we simply add a whole jar of Rao’s Pasta Sauce. We want to use every bit of it, so we add a splash of water (about ¼ cup) to the jar and shake it with the lid on to grab all the sauce. When all the remaining sauce is mixed with the water, we remove the lid and pour the water and sauce mixture into the sauce pan.
We bring our sauce to a boil and let it simmer for 15 or so minutes on medium. Turn down in case it starts to boil to prevent burning. It just needs to be at a rolling simmer.
Once the water for pasta is boiling, add about half a tablespoon of salt. Cook the pasta for 4-5 minutes depending on how al dente you want it. Since I use two 10-12 oz packs of the fresh pasta, I tend to cook it for a little longer at about 5-6 minutes. Best to follow the instructions on the box of your pasta and adjust according to your taste.
When the pasta is done done, go ahead and drain the water and quickly run it under cold water. Empty the big pot of water carefully and add the pasta back to that pot. Add good olive oil and salt to taste. Yes, even if we’re adding pasta sauce later.
Turn off the heat for the sauce sauce and immediately add the sauce to the pasta that’s in the pot. Mix.
Serve with basil and/or fresh ground black peppercorn and/or even more good olive oil if you like. Enjoy.
PrintShortcut Vegan Bolognese
Easiest vegan bolognese recipe in the world – and uses fresh pasta!
Ingredients
- 2 10-16 oz boxes of fresh pasta – I use New Seasons Fresh Bucatini or Orechiette
- 1 24 oz jar of Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce
- Beyond Meat – ground beef (substitute: 3-4 of the Beyond Burger patties and break them down)
- ¼ cup of water
- Good olive oil
- Peppercorns to crack
Instructions
- First, we boil our water in a large stock pot because we’re using 2 boxes of the bucatini. While the water starts boiling, we start working on our pasta sauce.
- Bring a big sauce pan to medium heat and add some olive oil. When the oil is hot, cook the Beyond Meat ground beef and frozen shiitake mushrooms until they are a little browned.
- When the vegan ground beef is browned and crumbly and the mushrooms are cooked down, we simply add a whole jar of Rao’s Pasta Sauce. We want to use every bit of it, so we add a splash of water (about ¼ cup) to the jar and shake it with the lid on to grab all the sauce. When all the remaining sauce is mixed with the water, we remove the lid and pour the water and sauce mixture into the sauce pan.
- We bring our sauce to a boil and let it simmer for 15 or so minutes on medium. Turn down in case it starts to boil to prevent burning. It just needs to be at a rolling simmer.
- Once the water for pasta is boiling, add about half a tablespoon of salt.
- Cook the pasta according to instructions on the box of store-bought fresh pasta. Adjust to your taste.
- Drain water from pasta and quickly run it under cold water.
- Quickly and safely empty the big pot of water. Return pot to stove and add the pasta back into the pot.
- Add good olive oil and salt to taste. Yes, even if we’re adding pasta sauce later.
- Turn off the heat for the pasta sauce and immediately add the sauce to the pasta that’s in the pot. Mix.
- Serve in shallow bowls or plates with basil and/or fresh ground black peppercorn and/or even more good olive oil if you like. Enjoy.
