Quorn bolognese with white spaghetti
The meat-free sauce that still needs the full simmer
Doubles easily and freezes in individual portions for up to three months, the same as a meat version.
Quorn mince behaves differently from meat in one important way: it needs almost no cooking to turn safe to eat, but it still wants the full simmer to taste of anything at all. Grated onion melted down to nothing, carrot cut small enough to soften completely, passata and stock given a proper twenty-five minutes on a low heat, and only then does the sauce taste like something you would choose rather than something you are making do with. It freezes exactly as well as a meat version, in flat bags that thaw quickly, which makes it worth doubling on a day you have the pan out anyway. Serve it the plain way, over white spaghetti, and nobody at the table needs to know which mince it was.
Ingredients
Contains: Gluten, Milk, Celery
- 20 gunsalted butter
- 1onion, about 100 g, peeled and finely grated, cooked to melting into the sauceHospitals differ
Onion: Hospitals differ
Why the preparation matters. Cook it until completely soft, then either purée it into the sauce or strain it out. Never leave it crunchy or in strands.
Where hospitals differ. The leaflet this book follows lists "sausages with onions" as avoid and does not list onion itself as allowed. Several trusts allow well-cooked onion. This book uses onion only cooked to melting and then puréed or strained.
If your team says no. Leave the onion out and let the sauce taste of the tomato and a scrape of Marmite instead.
Sources: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
More about onion - 1carrot, about 100 g, peeled and cut into 5 mm dicePreparation matters
Carrot: Preparation matters
Why the preparation matters. Peel it and cook it until fully soft. Dice it small or mash it.
If your team says no. Leave it out. The sauce loses a little sweetness and colour, and nothing else.
Sources: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics
More about carrot - 300 gQuorn mince, plain, not a variety with vegetables or a wholegrain coating
- 400 mlpassata
- 150 mlclear vegetable stock, strained, or a good stock cubePreparation matters
Stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, dashi): Preparation matters
Why the preparation matters. Keep it clear and strained, with no vegetable pieces.
Sources: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition & Dietetics
More about stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, dashi) - 1 pinchsugar
- salt
- 180 gspaghetti, white, not wholewheat
- 30 gParmesan, finely grated, to serve
Method
Melt the butter in a large, heavy-based pan over a low heat. Add the grated onion and cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until it has completely melted down with no colour and no trace of a strand.
Stir in the carrot and cook for a further 5 minutes, until it starts to soften.
Add the Quorn mince and stir it through for 2 minutes, only long enough to warm it and coat it in the buttery onion.
Stir in the passata, the stock, the sugar and a good pinch of salt. Bring to a gentle simmer, then turn the heat down low and cook, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the carrot is completely soft and the sauce has thickened.
About 10 minutes before the sauce is ready, bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti for a minute longer than the packet says, until fully tender.
Drain the pasta, keeping a cupful of the cooking water, and toss it through the sauce with a splash of the water to loosen. Divide between two warm bowls and finish with the Parmesan.
Watch-points
- Grate the onion rather than chopping it, and cook it low and slow until it melts completely into the sauce with no strand left.
- Dice the carrot small and give it the full simmering time, until a fork meets no resistance.
- Use a stock that is clear and strained, with no vegetable pieces floating in it.
- Choose a plain Quorn mince. Some varieties are sold pre-mixed with vegetables or coated in a wholegrain crumb, and both are off the list. Standard Quorn mince is also bound with egg white, so read the pack if egg matters to you.
- Use white spaghetti, not a wholewheat or spelt version.
Some hospitals allow onion left in visible pieces; the leaflet this book follows does not. Leave it out if you have been told to.
Stoma note: Even cooked until it disappears, onion is still onion, and it can cause wind for some people. If it has troubled you before, leave it out and use a slightly stronger stock in its place.
Make it more nourishing
- Stir 20 g of butter into the finished sauce off the heat, right before it goes into the bowls.
- Use 350 g of Quorn mince instead of 300 for a denser sauce.
- Add a tablespoon of skimmed milk powder to the sauce as it simmers, for extra protein you will not taste.
Swaps
- Instead of Quorn mince, use beef or lamb mince
- cook it through fully first, about 8 minutes, before the passata goes in
- Instead of Parmesan, use a vegetarian-labelled hard cheese
- most Parmesan is made using animal rennet, so it does not itself carry a vegetarian label
The foods in this recipe
Each of these has a page of its own, with how to prepare it and where hospitals differ.