Vegan Bolognese Sauce Recipe (2024)

Vegan Bolognese – the richest and most satisfying Italian sauce. Delicious San Marzano tomatoes are slowly simmered with red wine, bay leaves and deeply sauteed onions, which results in the most dreamy savory sauce. Finish it off with a bit of freshly made cashew cream and serve it over your favorite pasta for the perfect dinner.

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Vegan Bolognese Sauce

I just have to start by noting that this is not fake meat. The sauce is actually made with non-gmo, whole food soy curls that are rehydrated and minced before being simmered slowly in a rich, red wine and San Marzano tomato sauce. I use soy curls in my Vegan Chick’n with Broccoli recipe as well as my Vegetable Stew. They’re such a great substitute for meat, without being fake meat.

What is Bolognese Anyways?

Ragu Alla Bolognese is the official sauce of Bologna la Grassa. It’s a meaty, tender, and luscious red wine sauce. However, this version is made with meaty soy curls, incredible flavors, and all without the cholesterol and saturated fat. Vegan Bolognese is sure to play tricks with your mind, it’s that incredibly delicious!

Traditionally, milk or heavy cream is also added as a tenderizer, but since our soy mince is super tender already, I use just a tiny bit of cashew cream at the very end to smooth out the flavor profile but it’s totally optional. There’s really no acidity to tame down as using San Marzano tomatoes is the magic of all great, non-acidic, sweet tomato sauces.

How to Make Vegan Bolognese from Scratch

1. Make the cashew cream – Rinse the cashew pieces and blend them with ¾ cup water until smooth. Chill until needed.
2. Prep the soy curls – Cover and soak the soy curls in a bowl of hot water for 20 minutes. Wring out the water and chop them in a food processor until they gain the appearance of minced meat.
3. Saute – In a cast iron pot, saute the onion, celery, and carrot in a dab of olive oil until soft. Add pepper flakes and a pinch of salt and continue to cook until the veggies gain some color.
4. Add the wine – Add the minced soy curls and red wine to the veggies and allow to simmer until the wine is almost completely gone.
5. Simmer – Crush the tomatoes and add them to the pot with the soy curls. Simmer for 45 minutes or until thickened.
6. Serve – Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in half the cashew cream. Stir in the parsley. Pour over your favorite pasta and enjoy!

Tips + Variations

• Storage – Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Store in an airtight container, in the freezer, for up to 3 months.
• Reheating – Stove top or in the microwave, if need be.
• The veggies for Bolognese sauce – The holy trinity – a big onion, carrot, and celery. Additionally, bay leaves and a pinch of red pepper flakes make an appearance as well.
• Chopping the soy curls – It will depend on the texture you prefer, but you can either use the food processor pulsing a few times, or chop them by hand.
• Grate the carrot and celery – Traditionally, the celery and carrot get finely chopped. However, I prefer to grate them instead, you can do as you wish.
• Don’t rush the sauce – Do not rush the sauce; low and slow is the way to go. Traditionally, this sauce would be simmering on low heat on a cold winter day, for the entire day, its deep aromas spreading through the neighborhood. Veggie stock or water would be added to the sauce, as needed, if it reduced too much. This recipe will be ready in an hour, but it’s still important that you do not rush it. Cook it on low, partially covered, until the sauce reduces and thickens to your liking. It tastes even better the next couple of days if you happen to have any leftovers and freezes well too.
• Soy curls substitution – Instead of the minced soy curls you could go for a walnut mix, TVP, lentils, crumbled tofu, store-bought plant based “ground meat,” or this Mushroom Ragu I made with walnuts. Lentils simply don’t cut it for me, both flavor and texture wise, in Italian Bolognese sauce.
• Best pasta for bolognese – Due to its thick and rich consistency, traditionally, rigatoni pasta is served, or a wide long noodle that can hold on to all that sauce. Bucatini, penne rigate, and even gnocchi are great here. Anything with ridges that can capture that good sauce is a great choice. Make sure to cook your pasta until Al Dente “to the tooth” so it holds up to the sauce.
• Is it Healthy? – This hearty sauce is actually really good for you. It’s packed with clean plant based protein and micronutrients. Plus, you can opt for a WFPB & Plantricious version by omitting any oil and sauteeing your veggies in a splash of water so your recipe will be totally oil-free.
• Soy curls vs TVP – Soy curls are whole foods made from whole soybeans while TVP is a processed soy product. Once you mince up the soy curls, the texture is pretty similar, so use the curl, baby.

FAQs

• How to use this sauce? Bolognese is a rich, meaty and flavorful tomato sauce. So, anything you would use a tomato sauce for would bode well with this too. For example, you could make spaghetti or vegan lasagna Bolognese, rigatoni bake and even pizza! It goes great over just about any pasta and can even be used for dunking appetizers in!

• How to pronounce Bolognese? Bolognese is pronounced “bow-luh-naze.” The last part of the word is pronounced like the last part of mayonnaise. See? Nothing to it!

Vegan Sauces

• Vegan Tzatziki Sauce
• Fresh Heirloom Tomato Sauce
• Vegan Puttanesca Sauce
• Mango Avocado Sauce
• Italian Peperonata Sauce
• Cacio e Pepe

how to make vegan bolognese sauce