vegan meat sauce

This is a perfect substitute for moussaka, pastitsio, shepher's pie, lasagne etc - easy to make and freeze

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 30

Course Sauce - pre-prepared

Cuisine Italian, Vegan, British

Servings 250g portions

500 g pack of vegan mince – plant pioneers no bull or similar
600 g or 2 large onions Red or white is fine
100 g garlic
600 g or 2 packs of chestnut mushrooms
735 g or 2 cans of brown, red, or green whole lentils already cooked. A mixture of different lentils is good, puy, brown, green.
1 tube A tube of tomato puree
4 heaped tbsps yeast flakes
4 flat tbsps of stock powder
2 tbsps. of smoked paprika
2 heap tbsps of oregano
2 cans of chopped tomatoes.
2 tbsps of soya sauce – the naturally brewed sort.

Finely chop the onions in a large pan
Add some cold pressed rapeseed or olive oil and being sauteeing
Add in the garlic chopped or crushed – blitzing it in a food processor is definitely easiest.
Meanwhile wash and pulse blitz the mushrooms so they are in fairly small pieces.
As the onions soften and begin to brown, add the mushrooms and oregano to the pan with a little extra oil if needed.
Continue sautéing until the mushrooms are browning too.
Cook the veggie mince according to the instructions – I generally use my Actifry for this - but you can do it in a wok or ordinary pan.
Add to the other ingredients, and add in the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, paprika, stock powder, yeast flakes and soya sauce.
Cook off for 15 minutes or so, until the veggies and mince are well incorporated.
Finally add in the pre-cooked lentils and stir briefly – then take off the heat.
Add any extra liquid to get the consistency so it can be easily spread as in the picture.
Portion into 250g or 500g containers.

portioning this up into some 250g and some 500g containers gives you the most flexibility when you come to use it in a lasagne, moussaka, pastitsio, wraps, or nachos.
Of course as always, feel free to miss out ingredients, or adjust the contents.
Make sure you end up with 3,000g of sauce - the best way to do this is by weighing the saucepan first, and making sure it ways' a little over 3,000g more at the end. You can add tomatoes or water to achieve this. That then means you will have 12 250g or an equivalent quantity when you portion it up.
Mashed potato pie or shepherdess pie uses 365 to 400g per small oblong dish, but any left over can just be refrozen.

Keyword mince, moussaka, lasagne, pastitsio, shepher's pie, meat sauce

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