Vegan Beef & Bacon Ragu

Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

June 1

This meaty, hearty ragu has a delicious savoury richness, and is simple and straightforward to make. Eat it as part of a lasagne, with pasta, or spoon some into a jacket potato. The leftovers keep well in the fridge for a few days, and would freeze well too. For the mince: I used Beyond Mince, and for the bacon: I used La Vie plant based bacon. I also added a mix of mushrooms, to give this dish even more of an umami kick to it. I used a mix of shiitake and oyster mushrooms, but other mushrooms will work well too. If Beyond Mince and La Vie aren't available to you, or you want to use something different, simply replace them with plant-based mince and bacon of your choosing

Yield: Six servings Cook time:40 minutes

You'll need:

One tablespoon of oil
One small brown onion, finely diced
One small carrot, finely diced
One stick of celery, finely diced
Three cloves of garlic, minced
150g meat free bacon, diced
300g meat free mince
130g mushrooms, chopped
Two tablespoons of tomato puree
Two 400g tins of plum tomatoes, blended until smooth
Half a teaspoon of both dried basil and dried oregano
Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

Start by heating the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once it's warmed up, add in the onion, carrot and celery, and fry for ten minutes
Next, add the bacon and stir it through the vegetables, fry for five minutes
Then add the mince into the pan, breaking up the mince into your desired size, allow it to cook for ten minutes
Next add the minced garlic, and mushrooms, and allow them to cook for five minutes
Add the tomato puree and give it two minutes to cook off before adding the plum tomatoes, basil, oregano and seasoning to taste with salt and black pepper. Pop a lid on the frying pan and give the sauce ten minutes to cook, stirring every now and then
Finally, sprinkle over the nutritional yeast, stir it through the ragu, and then it's ready to serve