Ultimate Vegan Bolognese Sauce
‘This dish is absolutely delicious. Firmly listed in our top 3!’
Deborah T, Kendal; Food Customer
Table of Contents
- ✨ Before We Begin…
- The Cook’s Mind
- Ingredient Focus: Black Olives (in brine)
- My Favourite Way To Eat
- Multi-Purpose Recipe
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- Handpicked to Go With This One
- Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
- Ultimate Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce Recipe
✨ Before We Begin…
This plant-based bolognese skips the long simmer but still delivers on richness and body. Puy lentils give bite and substance, while a base of well-seasoned veg and umami-rich additions round out the flavour. It’s perfect for pasta, layered into lasagne, or spooned over a baked potato. Hearty, practical, and full of quiet flair. It’s the kind of sauce that earns its place in your regular rotation – familiar, but just a little elevated.
‘Must be best food offer, of any genre, in Kendal. Hugely accomplished cooking and very much recommended.’
Tony P, Kendal; Food Customer
The Cook’s Mind
This is where you begin to understand how flavour builds over time – not just in the pot, but in your own sense of what a good sauce needs. You’ll start to notice when something needs a touch more depth, brightness or salt, and you’ll learn how to bring it back into balance. Once you’ve made this a few times, you won’t need to reach for a recipe – just a wooden spoon and your own instinct.
Make-Ahead
Bolognese improves with time – make the sauce ahead and store it in the fridge for 2–3 days. You can also pre-cook pasta and cold-hold it, tossed in a little oil, ready to reheat briefly in boiling water before serving.
Freezer-Friendly
- This sauce freezes beautifully.
- Freeze pasta separately, if at all.
- Defrost in the fridge and reheat slowly to preserve the depth.
Key Substitution Ideas
- Black olives: sub with green olives for a brighter, sharper flavour.
- Mushrooms can add further umami in place of lentils or TVP.
- A splash of olive brine or soy sauce deepens the savoury notes.
Ingredient Focus: Black Olives (in brine)
Black olives add a brooding, briny complexity to bolognese – just a few, finely chopped, are enough to deepen the savoury base. Their brine, too, is liquid gold: a splash can sharpen a sauce or bring balance to sweetness. Use them like you’d use capers or tamari – in small, deliberate amounts.
✨ A spoonful of shadow to balance the light.
My Favourite Way To Eat
Layered into lasagne, with béchamel poured round the edges and sheets of pasta stacked just-so. I also love it spooned into a bowl of freshly cooked pasta with a big fork and no distractions – just the scent of tomatoes and herbs and something soft playing in the background. It’s food that settles you, and I think that matters.
Multi-Purpose Recipe
This sauce is endlessly flexible. Use it in lasagne, serve over pasta, or spoon into baked sweet potatoes or roasted squash. Leftovers can be folded into a shepherd’s pie, stirred into rice, or spread on toast with a little vegan cheese and grilled until bubbling.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s rich, hearty and properly satisfying – no need for meat or slow-cooking – the depth comes from seasoning, not time.
- It works in everything – pasta, lasagne, toasties, stuffed vegetables – it’s endlessly useful.
- It teaches you flavour layering – tomato, lentils, umami elements and herbs all come together with purpose.
- It holds up to reheating – Make it once, enjoy it again (and again).
- It feels like a classic – but better – Plant-based, wholefood-friendly, and still deeply comforting.
What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- How to use puy lentils as a robust, meaty-textured base
- How to build flavour using tomato paste, herbs, garlic and umami seasonings
- How to balance acidity and sweetness for a rounded finish
- How to adapt the sauce to different formats – lasagne, pasta, bakes, more
- How to trust your taste as the sauce thickens and deepens
Handpicked to Go With This One
A few recipes that play well together — flavour friends, not just neighbours.
Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
Got something spare – a handful, a spoonful, or the end of a packet? These tags help you find other ways to use it. It’s a small step toward cooking intuitively and wasting less❣️
black olives, brown onion, capers, dried oregano, fresh basil, fresh garlic, fresh herbs, green olives, ground black pepper, marmite, olive brine, puy lentils, red wine, red wine vinegar, spaghetti, tomato, tomato purée, tomatoes
Ultimate Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce Recipe
Ultimate Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce (for pasta and lasagne)
Puy lentils simmer with a rich tomato base and umami-rich seasonings to create a hearty, plant-based bolognese. It’s thick, satisfying, and just the right amount of bold. Whether spooned over pasta or layered into lasagne, this is comfort food with confidence.
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Ingredients
Ingredients for Step 1
- 130 g puy lentils | dry weight
- 500 ml water | approximate amount; to cook the lentils
Ingredients for Step 2
- 250 g brown onion | unpeeled weight
- 30 ml olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
Ingredients for Step 3
- 2 units garlic cloves
- 30 g green olives
- 30 g black olives
- 20 g capers
Ingredients for Step 4
- 48 g tomato purée
- 125 ml red wine
Ingredients for Step 5
- 15 ml olive brine
- 15 ml red wine vinegar
- 5 g marmite
- 400 g tomatoes | tinned & chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano
Ingredients for Step 6
- 1 litre water | plenty of boiling water
- 1 pinch salt
- 360 g spaghetti | dried or fresh
- 5 ml olive oil
- 12 fresh basil | to dress the dish
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Cook lentils
- Boil the kettle, add the hot water to the saucepan, add the lentils and bring to a rolling boil. Cook for 8-12 minutes until they are al dente ('with bite'). Concentrate on the cooking of the lentils and avoid green sludge.130 g puy lentils, 500 ml water
2. Cook the onions
- Peel and dice the onions into neat 1cm chunks. You really do want this neat and tidy.250 g brown onion, 1 pinch salt, 30 ml olive oil
- Heat the oil in the frying pan on a low-medium heat, and add the diced onion and the pinch of salt.
- Cook the onion well, turning it in the oil with the spatula. You want to add flavour to the dish by well-cooked onions so allow them to caramelise on the edges and begin to become translucent. But you still want texture so don't let them go too soft.
3. Prepare the umami mix
- Peel the garlic and roughly chop. Drain the olives and capers. Pile the ingredients up onto the chopping board and chop them up together. Chop them a lot, so the mix is very fine. This will take a few minutes. Take care of your onions at the same time.2 units garlic cloves, 30 g green olives, 30 g black olives, 20 g capers
- Once the garlic/olive/caper mix is ready, add to the pan and mix with the onions. Cook this mix together for a couple of minutes.
4. Cook tomato purée and add the wine
- Add the tomato purée and mix with the contents of the pan.48 g tomato purée, 125 ml red wine
- Cook the tomato purée so that it becomes a darker red colour. This will take 2 or 3 minutes.
- Add the wine to deglaze the pan, stir and mix, then reduce to a low heat and simmer until the liquid from the wine has disappeared.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and reduce the sauce
- When the wine has evaporated, add the ingredients listed, mix thoroughly, and simmer for 10 minutes to reduce.15 ml olive brine, 15 ml red wine vinegar, 5 g marmite, 400 g tomatoes, 1 tsp dried oregano
6. Finish
- Bring a pan of water and the salt to a rolling boil on a medium-high heat, add the pasta and cook until it is al dente (with bite).1 litre water, 1 pinch salt, 360 g spaghetti, 5 ml olive oil, 12 fresh basil, 1 pinch ground black pepper
- Drain the pasta and put it back into the pan. Add the olive and mix to coat the pasta so it doesn't stick together.It is tradition to put the cooked pasta into the sauce, and then to mix the pasta and sauce together. I don't like it like that to be honest, so I drain the pasta, add and mix the oil and a little pinch of black pepper, then I serve with the sauce on top of the pasta, topped with fresh basil leaves.
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 563kcalCarbohydrates: 100gProtein: 23gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 548mgPotassium: 623mgFiber: 16gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 984IUVitamin C: 21mgCalcium: 99mgIron: 4mg
Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on specific ingredients used. Nutrition is per serving. Information is for the main recipe, not optional accompaniments.
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COPYRIGHT
© The Golden Polar Bear, 2025. Recipes and photography by Julia Savory. If you share this, please pass it along with kindness and if possible share a link back to this site. #ForTheAnimals
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Next Steps?
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