This is the first recipe I vegan-ized after my vegan switch!
It is a brilliant tasty recipe for vegetable bolognese sauce from the lovely Giada DeLaurentiis. And veganizing it is super-simple – just swap some Tofutti cream cheese for the mascarpone cheese the recipe calls for, leave out the parm, and you have a wonderful vegan pasta sauce full of nutritious veggies that you barely notice you’re eating.
Since this is just for lil’ ol’ me, I also halved the original recipe. Which is still too much for me to eat, but fortunately this sauce freezes incredibly well. Pop individual servings into the freezer, and when you’re ready to thaw, either leave it in the fridge until fully defrosted or just plop the frozen sauce into a small saucepan on low heat.
serves 4
lightly adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis
1/2 oz dried mushrooms
3/4 C hot water
1 large carrot or 2 small
1/2 onion
1/2 red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/2 t dried thyme*
1/2 t dried oregano*
2 1/2 C mushrooms of your choice (I used cremini and button)
1 T tomato paste
1/4 C Tofutti cream cheese (or other non-dairy cream cheese)
*the original recipe calls for fresh herbs – you can use fresh or dried, but if you switch to fresh, double or even triple the amount
Soak dried mushrooms in hot water.
Peel and roughly chop the carrots, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Put them all in a food processor and pulse until very fine. You can of course do this by hand or leave some chunks in.
Heat a few tablespoons of water in a large frying pan and saute the veggies and herbs until soft. Add tomato paste and stir until it’s well incorporated. Then add dried mushrooms and the water they soaked in. I like to puree them together before adding.
The original recipe calls for a bit of red wine, so if you want to add it, put in a couple glugs now.
Once the liquid is mostly absorbed, remove from heat, stir in the cream cheese until well incorporated, and you’re done!
Mix into your favorite pasta.
This is such a rich and satisfying dish, and you cannot tell that it is jam-packed with vegetables.
De-licious. It’s meant to be a pasta sauce, but is also great spread on some bread. Hot toasty bread. Yes.
Nutrition facts per serving (note: this is just for the sauce – pick your own pasta!): Calories: 67; Calories from Fat: 24; Total Fat: 2.7g; Saturated Fat: 1.0g; Sodium: 82mg; Total Carbohydrates: 8.1g; Dietary Fiber: 1.6g; Sugars: 3.4g; Protein: 2.5g
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