Recipe: Vegetable Bolognese

Step 1

Crumble the extra firm tofu with your hands and reserve.

Step 2

Clean your veggies. Wash your veggies throughly under running water.

Step 3

Chop your veggies. Dice the onion, shred the carrot, mince the garlic, and finely chop the celery.

Step 4

Blend the walnuts on a food processor, but not too much. We don’t want it to become a paste. Alternatively you can finely chop them on a cutting board.

Step 5

Cook. In a medium-large saucepan add the oil and then set it to a medium-high heat and add the garlic, followed by the onion. Stir until golden, and the onion looks translucent. Add this point, add te celery.

Step 6

Incorporate walnuts and tofu. Continue with the blended walnuts, stir fry for a minute, and add the tofu.

Step 7

Add wine. This is optional, but we think it adds depth to the flavor and makes the sauce color a deeper red, as the tofu better absorbs wine’s color than tomato’s puree does. When you add the wine, you will notice that whatever might be sticking to the bottom of the saucepan un-sticks and becomes part of the sauce.

Step 8

Add the Carrot. Shredded.

Step 9

Add the tomato sauce and basil. Now lower the heat to medium-low. Keep stirring now and then. Let it cook for 30 minutes. Add tomato paste, for a richer sauce, as substitution or in addition to wine.

Step 10

Keep an eye; you might want to add ½ cup of water if too thick.

Step 11

Final seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.

Step 12

If you are using your veggie Bolognese for pasta, after fifteen minutes from the moment you have added all the ingredients to the sauce, set the water to boil, add a tablespoon of salt and add the pasta. In total, you need 5 minutes for your water to come to boil and roughly 10 minutes for your dry pasta to be ready (read the instructions on the package). Remember to add a tablespoon of salt to your boiling water.

Step 13

Fresh pasta typically needs from 3 to 5 minutes of cooking time, no more! That way, your pasta will be “al-dente.”