It feels like meat is getting more and more expensive every day, y’all. But you know what is still cheap? LENTILS. 🙌 I know we’ve sung their praises a thousand times, but lentils are cheap, versatile, and will keep you full all. day. long. So they’re a great substitute for meat in bolognese, whether you’re vegan or not. This lentil bolognese is rich, hearty, full of big savory flavor, and budget-friendly!
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What is Bolognese
Bolognese is a super rich Italian meat sauce reigning from the city of Bologna, Italy. Typically, this sauce starts with finely diced vegetables (onion, celery, carrot) that are cooked down with fatty beef and pork. Tomatoes or tomato sauce are added to give the ragú a tomato base, and white wine and milk are added to give the sauce extra richness. This extra lush sauce is typically served over pasta.
Because meat is getting so darn expensive these days, we decided to make a bolognese-like sauce using lentils instead of meat. The lentils make the bolognese sauce extra hearty for pennies on the dollar, and also add a great dose of fiber. We made sure to add tons of delicious herbs and spices, as well as some rich coconut milk, to make this lentil bolognese just as rich and flavorful as its meaty counterpart.
What kind of lentils to use
You’ll want to use red lentils for this recipe because they break down quickly, helping the sauce thicken up and get extra rich. They’ll retain just enough texture to feel “meaty,” without looking like lentils. The red/orange color of the cooked lentils also helps the bolognese sauce retain a nice deep red/brown color.
How to Serve Lentil Bolognese
Serve this hearty sauce over a pile of your favorite pasta, with some garlic bread and a light salad on the side. Because this sauce is so rich and thick, it pairs really well with larger pasta shapes, like rigatoni or tagliatelle because it clings well to pasta even without lots of ridges or crevices.
Lentil Bolognese
Servings 4 1 cup sauceIngredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.37)
- 1 carrot ($0.15)
- 1 stalk celery ($0.10)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper ($0.02)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts ($1.07)
- 1 cup uncooked red lentils ($0.67)
- 1 15oz. can crushed tomatoes ($1.00)
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.27)
- 1 tsp dried oregano ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried basil ($0.10)
- 1 tsp garlic powder ($0.10)
- 1 Tbsp sugar ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp black pepper ($0.02)
- 3 cups vegetable broth ($0.36)
- 1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk ($0.81)
Instructions
- Finely dice the onion, carrot, and celery. Mince the garlic.
- Add the olive oil, onion, celery and carrot to a large pot. Sauté the vegetables for about 5 minutes over a medium until the onions are translucent and the vegetables have softened.
- Once vegetables have softened, add the minced garlic, crushed red pepper and walnuts to the pot. Saute for 2 minutes over medium-low heat, or until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add the lentils, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, dried oregano, dried basil, garlic powder, salt, sugar, pepper, and vegetable broth to the pot. Mix everything together and bring the sauce to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer, semi covered with a lid, stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes. After about 25 minutes the lentils should be soft and the sauce thickened. If the sauce is still too thin for your liking, continue simmering until it has reached your desired consistency.
- Once the bolognese has reached your desired consistency and texture, stir in the coconut milk and simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste the bolognese and add salt to taste. Turn off the heat. The bolognese will continue to thicken as it cools.
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Equipment
- Dutch Oven
Nutrition
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How to Make Lentil Bolognese – Step by Step Photos
Finely dice one yellow onion, one carrot, and one stalk celery, and mince four cloves of garlic.
Add 2 Tbsp cooking oil to a large pot and heat over medium. Add the onion, celery, and carrot and sauté until the vegetables are soft and the onions are translucent.
Add the minced garlic, ¼ tsp crushed red pepper, and ½ cup finely chopped walnuts. Sauté over medium-low heat for about two minutes more.
Add 1 cup uncooked red lentils, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, ½ tsp salt, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp black pepper, one 14.5 oz. can crushed tomatoes, and 3 Tbsp tomato paste to the pot. Add 3 cups vegetable broth and stir to combine.
Allow the sauce to come up to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After about 25 minutes, the lentils should be soft and the sauce should be thick. If the sauce is still too thin for your liking, allow the sauce to simmer a bit longer. If the lentils are not yet soft, continue to simmer, adding a small amount of water as needed to prevent it from drying out.
Once the sauce is thickened, stir in ½ cup full fat coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes longer.
Taste the sauce and add salt if needed.
Just made this & it was delicious! However it was not at all red, more brown & I had to make a few changes. I didn’t have tomato paste so I used equal amounts of ketchup, didn’t have any coconut milk & had to blenderize canned diced tomatoes because I didn’t have any crushed tomatoes. All in all good flavor. Would tomato paste make it redder? And how different would it taste with the coconut milk?
No nutritional info listed??
All of the nutritional information is listed at the bottom of the recipe card! Also, just to point out our disclaimer, all the information here is calculated using software called Spooktacular API, and should only be used as a rough estimate. https://www.budgetbytes.com/nutrition-information-disclaimer/
I hate to be that person, but I could not find any red lentils so I substituted it for brown. I think it still turned out amazing in case anyone else runs into the same predicament.
I did have to simmer for 40 mins instead of the 25 mins and ended up smashing a bit of the lentils at the end to give it more of a meaty texture (brown lentils hold their shape and texture more than red).
It was a great recipe and will make again. Thanks Budget Bytes for helping us creatively combat inflation.
This was delicious! So hearty and filling, with a nice mix of complex flavors and textures. It really is a nice rich brownish-red color, too – very meat-like. I threw in a bunch of kale that I had lying around, and while it wasn’t a completely necessary addition, it was a nice extra. Thank you, Beth, for another winner!
One question, though: the walnuts worked great in this batch, but I’m planning on making this for a family gathering, where one person is allergic to walnuts. Do you have ani recommendations for other nuts that could be used in place of the walnuts? Or just extra lentils?
You could substitute them with pecans or cashews (but both will change the dish’s flavor slightly since they are somewhat sweeter than walnuts). They could also be left out but the sauce won’t be as rich! We also have a number of other vegan (and vegetarian recipes) on the site that you might find something that works well for your group without making any swaps. ~ Marion :)
Here’s a link to our NEW roundup — Best Lentil Soups (and Stews): https://www.budgetbytes.com/lentil-soup-recipes/
Oooh, pecans and cashews both sound like great ideas. Thanks, Marion! And thank you as well for the recipe roundup. :)
Seriously, anytime!
I made this as written and I think it’s absolutely delicious. It’s the best lentil Bolognese sauce I’ve tried. I really like the addition of the walnuts.
I had to add some water and I wish I had added more, because I don’t feel the lentils cooked as soft as I like. But your mileage may vary, depending on how watery your other ingredients are. And I would definitely cut down on sugar – are you sure it’s meant to be 1 tbsp, not one teaspoon? Or is it just the famous American sweet tooth?
The sugar amount is correct, but reducing it to suit your taste definitely wouldn’t make or break this recipe. When it comes to the lentils, I’m curious about what kind you used. As we mention in the post, prefer red or yellow lentils in this recipe because they break down more and help thicken the sauce much better than green/brown lentils, which tend to hold their shape even after cooking (and do so in much less time!). Cook times can also vary from brand to brand, so I would advise checking the package for a suggested cooking time and adjusting our recipe accordingly. ~ Marion :)
I did use red lentils (cooking time on package 10 – 15 min), but now I’ve realized I quite forgot that there were nuts in the dish and I probably mistook their crunch for undercooked lentils. Silly me!
No worries at all! If you’re not a fan of the nuts, you can always omit them next time. ~Marion :)
I only used 1tsp of sugar and feel this was the max amount for our taste. Thanks for the heads up 😋
Would this freeze well? It would be great to have some on hand for busy nights.
Yes! ~ Marion :)
This recipe was fantastic! I’m pescetarian but always looking for good vegan and fully vegetarian recipes. I followed the recipe as written but I doubled the amount of spices (I typically add extra when following recipes from this site). The sauce comes out super thick, rich, and flavorful. Rigatoni was a great vessel for the sauce.
Delicious! Would appreciate if pasta were added to the ingredients list, because I 100% failed to read that part and/or take notice of the picture and had to run back out *facepalm*
Does it have to be Red lentils?
PS You’re my favorite recipe site
I made this without the nuts because I didn’t have any, and I used half-and-half instead of coconut milk because I didn’t want to open a whole can just for half a cup. With those substitutions – it’s delicious! How much pasta would you make to go with this amount of sauce? It seems like it ought to be enough for a lot, maybe even 2 pounds of pasta.
This was so good!! I used the vegetarian Better Than Bouillon that’s meant to emulate beef broth. To me it doesn’t taste wildly different than their normal vegetable base, but it’s fun to use for recipes like this and french onion soup :)
I’ll try this at my next book group. Our group has 2 vegetarians, 1 almost vegan, and 1 who can’t eat cheese. This looks like it would work both for those with limitations and those of us without.
Can nuts be eliminated altogether? Thanks.
I bought walnuts and made the recipe as-is! I’ve had a bag of lentils in my pantry for too long, not knowing what to do with them. My husband and I are huge meat eaters and we were so surprised by this dish, we loved it! I seasoned it a bit more than the recipe notes but was so tasty. Thank you!