I made this spag bol as I wanted to make the most of ingredients i was planning on using in other things during the coming week's meal plan. The recipe is easy and comes together quickly. Its fully vegan as is, or you could always add your favourite cheese on top, even if its a non vegan variety. This makes enough for 6-8 portions, enough to feed a crowd or for weekday lunches.
Ingredients:
Drizzle of olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups red lentils
23 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked overnight (go to a Chinese/ Oriental store for a larger bag at cheaper prices)
1 tsp each of mixed herbs, paprika and oregano
2 tsp miso paste
1 can tomatoes
1 1/4 can mushroom soaking water
1 can water
280 g spaghetti
Salt and pepper, to taste
Handfuls of chopped parsley, to garnish
2 tbsp nutritional flakes, to garnish
Method:
Start by prepping the soaked mushrooms. Remove the mushrooms from the soaking water. Keep the water, you will need this later. Cut off the stalks from the mushrooms and chop them up. Set aside.
Drizzle the olive oil in a deep pot and heat on medium. When it's hot, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the garlic, stir and cook for a minute.
Add the lentils and stir them into the onions and oil well. Add the chopped mushrooms and stir well. Add the canned tomatoes, the reserved mushroom water and the water. Use the tomato can to measure out the liquid. Stir everything together and add the dried herbs and miso paste. Stir together and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat slightly and add the spaghetti. Break them in half if you need to make them fit into the pot. Stir them into the sauce and add more water if it looks dry. Let everything simmer together for 10-12 minutes until the spaghetti are cooked through. You may need to add more water at regular intervals when the sauce starts looking dry and the lentils start sticking to the bottom of the pan. I ended up adding about 2 extra cans of water but this will depend on your lentils and how they absorb liquid. Make sure you add any liquid a bit at a time, letting it absorb before adding more as required. You are aiming for a thicker sauce coating the spaghetti. When the spaghetti and lentils are cooked through turn off the heat.
Sprinkle in the parsley and nutritional flakes on top, then stir in. If you are making this for lunches, like I did, let it cook before portioning up and putting in the fridge. The sauce will thicken a little while cooling so feel free to add a little water to loosen.
Substitutions and additions:
Use 1-2 tsp yeast extract or soy sauce instead of the miso paste.
Feel free to use fresh or frozen mushrooms instead of the fried shiitakes. Make sure you use veggie stock if you don't have the mushroom soaking liquid.
Up the veggie count by adding peppers, courgettes, carrots.
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