Lentil Bolognese

7 Mar 2017

When I have time to read, I am usually reading several books at once. This is a new thing, I don't know why I started doing this as I used to be a one book at a time gal. In the mix these days there will be at least one food science-y book. One of late is the very interesting, What Einstein Told His Cook (*Affiliate Link),and I have learned many things - including you do not need to salt the pasta water...ever. According to science, salt is supposed to raise the boiling point of water, so technically your pasta would cook hotter and faster if salt is added.

However, apparently in this scenario, it is so minuscule it really makes no difference. If you want to salt the water for taste, that is about all you will achieve with this tactic...who knew. I find this situation a lot when cooking, some techniques we perform in cooking are not that useful or are basically false, cooking folklore if you will and then others (especially in baking) are very important/vital to the success of a recipe. Unfortunately, you won't typically know unless you do some investigating on your own.

For this recipe, I did not include the pasta in the sous vide bag because it has to cook long due to the lentils and the pasta will get too mushy. You can sous vide pasta and grains though - I will be posting about this in the near future. This dish can be easily prepared traditionally as well and it is a great meatless alternative to Bolognese.

* Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links, which means I receive a percentage of the proceeds if you make a purchase using these links. I do own these products, think they are great, and purchased them with my own hard earned cash :) (Mary's Making is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to my Amazon. )

Lentil Bolognese

Recipe for lentil mushroom bolognese.
By

Lentil Bolognese

Prep time: - Cook time: - Total time:
Yield: 2-4S

Ingredients

*If preparing via Sous Vide - Freeze 1 cup vegetable stock prior to beginning recipe
*For chopping I used my food processor with the slicing disc
- 1.5 - 2 cups mushrooms (sliced)
- 2 shallots (thinly sliced)
- 1 carrot (peeled, thinly sliced)
- 1 celery rib (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 cup green or black lentils
- 2 pressed/minced garlic cloves
- 1 cup canned diced tomatoes
- 1 T tomato paste
- 1 t chili powder
- dash salt & pepper
- 1/8 cup torn fresh parsley
- 1 cup vegetable stock (if sous vide use frozen stock)
- pasta of choice
- Optional Toppings: Parsley, grated Parmesan-
-
Directions

Prepare via Sous Vide:
Set sous vide device to 185F.

Place all ingredients in vacuum bag and seal.

Let cook for about 2 hours once temperature is back to 185F (goes down due to cold food going in).

Prepare pasta you will use with bolognese using traditional stove-top method.

*Life Hack: Can add two other similar bagged meals to water bath and cook three at once!

Prepare with Traditional Cooking:
Cook lentils according to package instructions.

Saute shallots, carrot, celery and garlic until carrot is cooked.

Add in lentils, tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, stock, salt and pepper and let cook until thickened up a bit (about 15 minutes).

Cook pasta while bolognese is simmering.

Top with parmesan and parsley and serve.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

SHARE POST

Yum

highlighted articles

Nursery Reveal
Pressed Sandwich
Citrus Swirl Tart
[if lte IE 9]>