Quick Chickpea Bolognese

I’ve made this several times now (10+ times). I always add a whole bunch of carrots (about 8-10) and a whole small container of gourmet mushrooms (maybe 1.5 cups). Sometimes I use the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and other times I just use a large jar of marinara. Both delicious and healthy. I always serve it over zoodles. And I like it with homemade garlic toast (using sprouted grain bread). This way I’m getting loads of veggies, beans, grains, & herbs. It’s very satisfying.

I was not expecting too much when I saw the other reviews, but have to say that my husband and I thought this was excellent, and a good substitute for bolognese!

I used the crockpot for this .....turned out great over spaghetti squash!

I made this tonight and loved it! I am used to chopping vegetables every night so it didn't take long although I wouldn't call it quick. I served it over Barilla plant based angel hair pasta. I Will definitely make this again!!

Using chickpeas doesn't make sense in this recipe; you can't really call this a bolognese. I made it with a can of black lentils. They are small and a good sub for ground beef for new plant-based eaters. I used dried oregano (2 tsp) and fresh parsley (2 tbsp). I also used 2 purple carrots, and 1/4 cup more mushrooms and onions. I didn't really need the salt. The extra oregano and fresh parsley added lots of flavor. To make it more like a traditional bolognese which has milk/cream, you could blend cashews and water in a high speed blender to make "cream." Mix it in at the end. I gave it three stars because even though I made several changes, it introduced me to bolognese and inspired me to make a plant-based version that is more like the traditional.

This tasted ok, but I think back to the drawing board for it to be classified as "quick". Plus I'd make the protein lentils or mashed cannellini or borlotti*, or other white beans rather than chick peas (*you call borlotti beans pinto beans). If using canned chick peas, I find the canned ones to be a bit hard for there to be a chance of this being saucer ;) I have to agree this is not super quick. My knife skills were not up to the task in your "quick" time frame. I used bottled Italian passata - I'm in Australia and also often have issues figuring out what an ingredient is, as the English lady commented. There are many things available in the States which are not available here, eg: tinned roasted tomatoes, which frankly might have helped the flavour profile in this recipe. It being winter to your summer here in Oz, we don't have a lot of vegetables and fresh herbs available unless you get expensive non organic out of season stuff in a major chain supermarket. I grated the carrot so it would be "saucier" and I chopped the chick peas up a bit in a mini blender so they also would be less chunky. They pinged all over the place when I tried chopping them. I used a teaspoon of mixed Italian herbs since my fresh oregano is in winter retreat, and I thought dried oregano on its own wouldn't have time to cook into the flavour profile. I wouldn't try this again with chick peas but with lentils or a mashed bean. Also, I would cook it in the Instant Pot together with the vegetable pasta to make it faster with a more mature flavour profile without an extra saucepan to wash up. My adjustments made it ok but I think the chickpeas, wonderful as they are, are just not the right protein for a Bolognese-type sauce. I also added some steamed broccoli to my plate, which made it all taste a bit fresher. A good idea with adjustments, but that's what cooking is!

Thought the amount of oregano was overpowering and threw the flavor profile off. Will definitely try again with that adjustment. Keep in mind that this would only be a 15 min. recipe if you’re a master chopper. I took the class and have proper knife skills but cannot gather ingredients, achieve a nice 1/4” chop of everything, and get it all put together that quickly.

I'm in the UK, what's tomato sauce? is it tomato puree or passata? Over here, tomato sauce is ketchup