It doesn’t always have to be meat. But it has to taste good!
Our recipe today combines exactly these two things. Namely, a vegetarian version of a classic Bolognese sauce. We replace the minced meat with delicious and particularly healthy buckwheat.
Buckwheat is a pseudo-cereal and contains many high-quality nutrients and vital substances: it is rich in essential amino acids such as lysine and tryptophan. It also contains lots of vitamin E and almost all B vitamins (plus vitamin B12). Minced meat really can’t compete with that.
So, now to the recipe, where you really can hardly taste any difference to the original.
You will need the following ingredients for four portions of the vegetarian Bolognese sauce:
100 g buckwheat (uncooked)
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic (or more, as you like it)
2 carrots (diced very small)
3 stalks of celery (cut very small)
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp thyme
or alternatively 2 tablespoons Italian herbs
500 ml pureed tomatoes
350 ml vegetable stock
150 ml Red Wine
Salt and pepper
First of all, rinse the buckwheat well under cold water and then boil it in twice the amount of water, seasoned with vegetable stock, and let it swell for about 15 to 20 minutes until the buckwheat has absorbed all the water. Use a somewhat larger pot for this, as the buckwheat swells a lot.
Then you put the pot for the sauce on and heat the olive oil to fry the onions in it. The next step is to add the buckwheat and garlic. Season everything with salt and, if you like, a little smoked paprika. Let the whole thing braise for a while.
Now add the finely diced vegetables. This can also stew for a few minutes. In this way, delicious roasted aromas develop. Now add the herbs and tomato paste, followed by the strained tomatoes, vegetable stock and red wine. Add one or two teaspoons of sugar and let the sauce simmer for a good hour with the lid closed and on a low heat. This will allow all the flavours to really develop. If you are in a hurry, you can take the sauce off the heat after about 30 minutes, but the longer cooking time is good for the taste.
Now taste the sauce and serve it with Spaghetti or – typically Italian – with Fettuccine or Tagliatelle.
An Guatn!
