Mushroom and lentil bolognese

A versatile and delicious pasta sauce

This is one of the many meals that I make for myself, because no-one else in the house likes it. I have come to terms with the fact that probably only 10% of the meals I cook will be eaten by the whole household.

Hmmm….

Actually, when I say I have come to terms with it, that’s actually a blatant lie. I am doing my best to come to terms with it, because I know that a huge amount of the need I feel for everyone to love what I cook is based to a large extent on gendered socialisation. There is still an idyllic image in my head of the big family, sitting around the huge wooden kitchen table (in the huge kitchen of my fantasies, of course) digging into delicious food, cooked by me, with many children who love nothing more than their mum’s food. There is still an idea in my head that if the whole family doesn’t eat every last scrap on their plates and go to the pans and dishes on the table for seconds and thirds, then that means I am a bad mum. Or that if one or more people have to have a different meal cooked for them, or even make it themselves, that means they don’t love me, or maybe that I don’t love them enough, because I haven’t provided for them by feeding them. Because food is love.

I provide for them in many other ways, they are all very capable of making lovely (and somewhat nutritious) food for themselves, or for everyone, and it’s not like I don’t have a tonne of other things that I need to do and to worry about, so it absolutely doesn’t need to be a big deal.

But these thoughts are still there in the background, percolating now and then. They are getting less and less frequent, though. I cook at least one or two meals a week that I know full well only I will eat, but they are meals I love and I am holding and acknowledging my right to cook and eat them - and I am quite happy to eat the same thing for five meals in a row (yes, including breakfast) so as not to waste any of it. Most meals will be shared with at least one other member of the family (different family members for different meals) and there are still a handful that everyone will eat. And we’re getting closer to the warmer months, when we can do the tapas, salads, wraps combos where we all sit down together and eat slightly different things.

In my reading up about neurodivergence, and associated food quirks, I have realised that some of my own stubbornness over food may well have its routes there, both in my neurodivergences and those of my own mother. I love a meal that has loads and loads vegetables in. Much much more than one with just a small number of ingredients. I love salads with a mixture of leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, carrots, olives, onions… I love big vegetable stews with all the root vegetables in.

I think some of it has to do with wanting to get as much variety of nutrients in as possible, but I think I also love the mixture of flavours, too. If I’m having a tapas, mezze or wrap meal, I will want to pile a little bit of everything on my plate. If I’m out at restaurant it really bothers me if I have to choose just one dish and I love places that bring you tonnes of side of side dishes.

Illustrated recipe: Shepherdess Pie

Illustrated recipe: Tomato and bean casserole

And I recognise that other people (in my immediate family, but also in the wider world) have different tastes and that the things I like won’t appeal to everyone (especially when I’m choosing to cut out a whole bunch of ingredients they love) and the things that appeal to other people won’t always appeal to me. And that’s OK. I am trying hard to open up and try a lot more new things, because my tastes have changed over my life and I wouldn’t want to miss out on something I might love, but it’s also absolutely fine that I keep cooking the same dishes over and over again, once I have found ones I love.

Mushroom and Lentil Bolognese

Serves 5 or 6 (or 1 person over 5 or 6 meals!)

This recipe is very versatile - you can put in different vegetables, use different green leaves, keep things out and add and remove things as your tastes suggest. It’s a particularly useful recipe for using up vegetables before the next shop or veg box arrives. I would say that the essentials, though, are mushrooms and lentils, because they soak up the flavours from everything else and give it a particular texture (I feel look some might describe it as ‘meaty’ but I won’t, because I have no idea what that would be!).

Ingredients

• mushrooms, finely diced or shredded
  whichever type you have on hand and prefer; the cheapest white mushrooms from the local supermarket will be fine, but you’ll get more depth and flavour if you have others, and you can soak and include some dried mushrooms if you have some, though add them at the same time as the vegetables, rather than here

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 medium onion
  you could also use some leeks instead or include one as well as the onion

• 3 or 4 garlic cloves

• 1 or 2 chillies
  red or green and according to your preferences, and leave out if you don’t like a kick

• a variety of vegetables, such as courgette, carrot, broccoli, aubergine, parsnip, peppers, finely diced
  I do find having at least one root vegetable helps, but you can lean into more Mediterranean flavours, or towards whichever ones are in season where you are. You can also throw in frozen veg if you’ve not got much fresh to hand - frozen peas, edamame beans, frozen peppers, or even a handful or two of mixed frozen veg would work. If you have some olives definitely add a handful or two of them, as the tang gives a really good flavour pop.

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  or squish some plum tomatoes, or fresh ones if you need to use them up, too

• about 2 canfuls of hot water
  use it to rinse out the tomatoes tin so you don’t waste any of those tomatoes

• 1 tbsp miso paste

• 2 tbsp tomato puree

• 1 tbsp toban djan
  optional - definitely leave out if you don’t like a kick, or switch for your preferred hot sauce or other spicy condiment

• 2 handfuls of red lentils
  again, you can mix it up according to your preferences here and use different types of lentils, or black beans even (I really strongly recommend not leaving them out unless you have a strong dietary reason to do so; if so, consider swapping in some firm tofu, pressed and loosely shredded, or a plant-based mince if you really can’t do either)

• juice of 1 lemon
  or 2 for extra tang

• green leaves of some kind
  rocket works really well, as does spinach, but watercress, cavolo nero, beetroot leaves, and so on and so on, would all work fine

• around 200g pasta
  I like this with a long pasta like linguine or spaghetti, but it also works well with shells and will go with most pasta

Method

1. Dry for the mushrooms for around 5 minutes.

2. Add the olive oil and the onion, garlic and chilli and sauté for another 5 minutes.

3. Add the diced vegetables - all in one go, or bit by bit as you’re chopping them - and then cook until they’re a bit softened.

4. Add the tomatoes, hot water, miso paste, tomato puree and toban djan (if including), lentils and lemon juice and cook on a medium to high heat while you boil your pasta water.

5. Add the green leaves after you’ve added the pasta to the water.

6. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and dish up with a small pile of pasta topped with a very large pile of bolognese. You can also mix it all in directly and serve that way, but I do prefer the first serving to be served unmixed and then I mix whatever’s left together to eat over the next day or two.

If you want even more nutrients, you can sprinkle with some pine nuts and/or some other chopped nuts or seeds. You could also serve it with a nice side salad (or a starter salad) and that would stretch it out to serve even more people (or last even longer).

You can totally freeze it into individual portions, to get out on days when you don’t feel like cooking. I rarely do this, because we rarely have room in our freezer and I almost always forget that I’ve got frozen leftovers if I have managed to find room for them. I really should do it more often, though, especially if I know there’s a busy period of work coming up!

Thank you so much for reading.

Oh, and by the way, I have switched up the paid plan to there not being a paid plan any more. I am wanting to dig in to writing what I write when I want to write it and keeping to a defined timetable is preventing me from the authentic maximalism I am aiming for this year. But also because I have realised (cf neuroquirky explorations mentioned briefly above) that I have a huge problem with feeling I have the authority to impart and to expect payment for.

So, I am returning, on all my substacks, to completely optional paid subscriptions. And they are super low. If you happen to enjoy the recipes or writing here, or love the illustrations, please throw me a tip, by subscribing for just one month, or an special thank you by subscribing for a year.

And continue to enjoy and read without any payment and just share with others who you think would enjoy it, and comment and tell me if you tried a recipe.

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