Veg Bolognese Pasta Recipe

Veg Bolognese Sauce on a ‘budget’ || Easy home made Bolognese Sauce with few easily available ingredients||

Let me come straight to the point today.. I Love the concept of Bolognese sauce. How minced meat mingles so well with tomatoes and together they emulsify into this creamy, intensely deluxe meal. But while searching for the recipe, I found most of the chefs prefer it with Meat, and though there were few available recipes with vegetables, the process was elaborate and quite heavy in the pocket… Could someone save me and let me have some pleasure of eating!!!

Ingredients:

Minced Soya/ Soya Keema (very easily available in the market, sold in packets)- about one cup or 100 gm
Bay leaf-1
Tomato Puree- about 3 medium sizes
Tomato ketchup- about a cup
Onion- chopped/ 1 medium to large
Garlic- chopped 10-12 pods
Carrots- diced into small pieces- 1 whole
Capcicum- Diced, 1 (You may use vegetables of your choice)
Italian seasoning
Olive Oil/ Salt- Pepper
Pasta- of your choice, I used Capellini pasta here, you may use whatever you like
Some chopped roasted peanuts- optional

Cooking Process:

Cook the pasta on boiling water adding some salt in it. Save some Pasta water, about a cup and keep that water aside.
Lets come to the main cooking Now:
Soak the Soya keema into a bowl of hot (very hot) water. Let them soak for about 10-15 minutes. Then rinse them and make sure no water is left in the Soya keema.
Take a pan or pot, add some olive oil, about 3-4 table spoons. Add the bay leaf. Add the soya keema and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic, onion, vegetables and cook for a bit. Cook them on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Once the onions start turning translucent and there is no raw smell of the soya keema (it may turn slightly brown), add the tomato puree (I used home made tomato puree here), mix them well and cook it for about 10 minutes on low heat (you may cover the pot and let it cook), keep stirring in between.
After 10 minutes, when the tomato puree reduces a bit, add the ketchup, salt, pepper, some Italian seasoning and cook for about 5 minutes. You may add some dried or fresh parsley, oregano here.
The sauce should get almost dry by now, add the pasta water in small portion to adjust the consistency of the sauce, it should be little thick but not tooo thick to be difficult mix with the pasta. This should take about 2-3 minutes to get ready.

While serving, you may serve the sauce at the side of the pasta, or just mix the pasta with the sauce and serve as a whole meal. Don’t forget to sprinkle some toasted peanuts on top or some fresh parsley may be.. Or some cheese if you like.

It was really a simple, humble recipe, made with easily available grocery in our fridge. I don’t think you have to run to the market to get any of these ingredients as now a days we mostly keep a little stock of all these ingredients.. I hope I’m correct? So make your version of this Bolognese sauce and let me know what changes you made.. Happy Home cooking!!!!