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Vegan Ragu Pasta Bake

A delicious layered pasta bake with a wonderful rich ragu lentil sauce. You could serve this like a vegan pastitsio if wished – see details in the instructions. Perfect for using up leftover vegetables in the fridge and a useful budget option too as it makes use of store cupboard ingredients. You could also make […]

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Overview

Serves 6

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

 

What’s Good About It?

The addition of canned lentils adds fibre and protein to the dish. This is a fabulous recipe for sneaking in plenty of vegetables as well and making use of any leftovers in the fridge,

Did You Know?

Any pasta shape could be used in this recipe. This ragu sauce is delicious served as a topping for baked potatoes too.

 

Ingredients

RAGU SAUCE

1tbsp olive oil

2 carrots, diced

1 red onion, chopped

100g button mushrooms, chopped

1tsp garlic chopped

1tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of chili flakes

1/2 tsp onion salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

100ml vegetable stock

2tbsp tomato puree or tomato ketchup

2tbsp tamari soy sauce

2tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes

1 x 400g puy or green lentils

 

 

PASTA

300g gluten free macaroni pasta

60ml coconut milk, optional

1tbsp cornflour, optional

 

CHEESE SAUCE

2tbsp cornflour

3tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

700ml coconut milk

200g grated dairy free cheddar cheese – I used violife

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C.
  2. First make the ragu sauce. Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onion, celery, carrot, mushrooms, garlic and spices for 3-4 minutes until the onion begins to soften and turn golden. Add the remaining ingredients and cover the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
  3. Meanwhile cook the macaroni pasta but only cook for about 6 minutes so that the pasta is still quite firm as you are going to be baking it in the oven too. Strain then toss back in the pan with the coconut milk and cornflour. This will help it clump together a little bit when you bake it so that if you do want to cut and serve this cold it will hold together. You can omit this stage if you are going to serve it hot straight away as in the picture.
  4. Make up the cheese sauce. Mix the cornflour with a little of the coconut milk to make a small sauce. Simply place all the ingredients in a pan and cook over a gentle heat stirring regularly until it thickens.
  5. Assemble the dish. Lightly grease an ovenproof rectangular dish. Tip the pasta into the base and spread out evenly. Top with the ragu sauce then the cheese sauce. To stop the layers blending together make sure the ragu sauce is cold and the cheese sauce is nice and thick.
  6. Place the bake in the oven and cook for 40 minutes until lightly brown on top. Either serve straight away or cold and place in the fridge overnight. You will then be able to cut into slices and serve cold.  You can prepare ahead and reheat in the oven (cover the dish in foil) or microwave if wished.

 

 

 

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