This luxurious, hearty and oh-SO-delicious vegan roasted cauliflower and mushroom bolognese is my meat-free take on the traditional bolognese. If you're looking for a crowd-pleasing main meal to make your vegan and non-vegan loved ones, look no further. Trust me when I tell you, this will become your new favourite comfort meal.
1–2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley (plus more to garnish )
450g pasta
Vegan Parmesan
1/2cup walnuts
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic salt (or half of each)
Instructions
Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pan, over medium-high heat, add in the roughly chopped cauliflower (even add in the tiny little bits!) Cover the pan with a lid, cook for around 20 minutes or until charred. Mixing often, and deglazing the pan with a splash of water when needed.
While the cauliflower cooks, prep the mushrooms. Remove the stalk, and give it a rough chop. In small-ish batches, add into a food processor and pulse until it's finely chopped – the size of a grain is what you're looking for.
Once the cauliflower is charred, using a wooden spoon break up the cauliflower into little bits. Transfer into a bowl. In the same pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil and mushrooms. Cook mushrooms for 7-9 mins over high heat. The mushrooms are done once the colour darkens and all the excess water has evaporated. *see blog post for visuals*
Add in the onions, 2tbsp olive oil and cook for 5-6 minutes or until golden. Add in garlic, dried oregano. chilli flakes, salt, black pepper, and cook for a few seconds. Finally, add in the tomato puree and cook for 2-3 minutes, while constantly stirring! Turn the heat down to the lowest temperature while boiling the pasta. Make sure you give it a quick mix every 1-3 minutes.
Add water into a kettle, pour into a pot. Repeat until you have enough water to cook your pasta in. Add in a generous amount of salt, and boil the pasta for 1 minute less than al dente – read the packaging of the pasta!
While the pasta boils, make the vegan parmesan by pulsing together walnuts, nutritional yeast and garlic salt. Set aside until needed.
Turn the heat back up to high on the sauce, add in the almost al dente pasta using a slotted spoon. Add in half of the vegan parmesan, parsley, cauliflower bits and 1 cup of pasta water. Mix together, and add in another 1 cup of pasta water. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce clings onto the pasta. If you want to make the pasta saucier add in more water – I added 3 cups of pasta water.
Enjoy warm with a sprinkle of more vegan parmesan (it's a MUST) and freshly chopped parsley. Happy mushroom bolognese making & eating!