Vegan bolognese, low-calorie

This is the ultimate weightloss sauce. I don´t know if I can call this a bolognese, though. This has no meat, added fat, or dairy products. This vegan bolognese is made purely of healthy vegetables and beans. You can eat all you want of this plant-based sauce!

You can eat this with:

• Whole-grain spaghetti
• Zucchini noodles
• Burrito filling
• With nachos and salsa
• In a taco salad
• As a lasagna sauce

This sauce is a great vegan replacement for a traditional bolognese sauce. In the pictures you see this with kidney beans, but you can add other protein sources also like crumbled tofu.

Is spagetti bolognese fattening?

Yes, bolognese sauce is fattening if you prepare it with fatty meat. To get a low-calorie bolognese sauce, increase the number of vegetables such as tomatoes, carrot, celery, onions, and replace the meat with soy protein.

A traditional bolognese sauce has a high amount of saturated fats if you use a traditional recipe with beef or pork mince. When we transitioned to plant-based eating, I started to replace the meat with dried dark soy crumbs. They taste really bland, but with the right spices, you get a really delicious sauce. Later on, I noticed you can use whatever vegetables and beans and get it to taste delicious if you use the same mix of spices. Soy crumbs are also processed so even better is to use lentils or beans, but for the same type of meat texture, the soy is good.

As spaghetti for ultimate weight loss, you can use zucchini noodles. Zucchini is really low-calorie food but has fiber and nutrients; you can eat a big portion of zucchini. One middle size zucchini of 350 grams only has 64 calories. The same weight, 350 grams of cooked spaghetti, has 353 calories. Eating a whole-grain version of spaghetti will though keep you full for a longer time.

If you are interested in trying out zucchini spaghetti, you can use a special spiralizer tool for that. If you don´t have that try out just a basic peeler or make thin slices with a knife.

Is spaghetti bolognese good for weight loss?

Spaghetti bolognese is good for weight loss if you make a vegetarian low-calorie version. Use beans to give protein and healthy fiber. Replace the white pasta with whole grain one. This way, you get a portion low in fat and low GI value.

This recipe is designed especially for weight loss on a plant-based diet. If you are familiar with the starch solution or Michael Greger's books, then you know starches keep you satiated. So beans and whole-grain pasta will fill you up and won't make you fat. To ultimate weight loss, it is good to eat half plate of vegetables. If you are feeling lazy to make a side salad, portion this bolognese so that you have half pasta and the other half sauce of the plate, this way, you have served yourself half plate of veggies.

One suggestion is as I mentioned above to make some zucchini pasta. Boil the thin slices in water a couple of minutes or steam them. You can also do 50/50 of spiralized veggies and whole grain pasta.

How many calories are in a bowl of spaghetti bolognese?

A big portion of 200 grams of cooked full-grain spaghetti and a vegan vegetable bolognese sauce is only 310 calories. You get a total of 12 grams of fiber in one portion and 12,4 grams of protein.

If you ate this sauce with white spaghetti, the fiber content would be much lower, only 9 grams. This is also a lot if you compare to a traditional meat sauce, but white pasta spikes your blood sugars more, and it has a lot less iron and other nutrients than whole grain one. I always recommend eating organic whole grain products.

If you eat a portion of this sauce with a whole medium size zucchini it would only be around 170 calories. The whole portion!

What can I have with bolognese instead of pasta?

Some healthy replacements are:

• Whole grain rice pasta
• Lentil or bean pasta
• Cooked potatoes
• Noodles made of zucchini or carrot.
• Shirataki noodles
• Quinoa pasta

How do you make bolognese less watery?

Let the sauce simmer long enough, so excess water evaporates. You can add starch to it to make it thicker. As a starch, you can use wheat flour, potato flour, or corn starch. Mix 1 tablespoon of flour in some water, add to the sauce and let boil for a couple of minutes.

This sauce might be a little watery. I did not add any starch to the recipe but feel free to add some if you think it is needed. When I made this, it turned out just fine, but maybe not the most photogenic sauce, though.

How does vegan bolognese differ from a traditional one?

Bolognese sauce is called bolognese because it originates from Bologna, Italy. There are many sauce variations, but traditionally it is made of onions, celery, carrots, ground meat, tomatoes, milk, and some wine. Vegan variations leave out the meat and milk and replace it with other plant-based protein sources.

I find that best tasting bolognese sauce is made with using onion, celery, carrot and substituting the meat with a plant based prosessed mince product. Some wine and plant based cream. This is a great transision sauce for those meat lovers because it tastes "authentic" but if you want to lose weight then you have to cut out the processed products.

In this recipe I don´t use celery and in my sauce we did not have onions, because I am a little allergic to celery and we don´t tolerate onions well.

You can try out different veggies in the sauce. Great options are a little celery and bell peppers as well. I often cook with what I have at home, so remember that you don't have to use these specific ingredients for your sauce as I have in my recipe. I used these ingredients because it is the autumn season, and we had cheap local cabbages, zucchinis and carrots, and onions.

This si a simple recipe, but if you want to make a little twist to it to make it even better, you can caramellize the onions, add a little wine and make a lovely creamy sauce by adding some cashew creamer.

Make the cashew creamer by soaking cashew nuts and blending them with water and a teaspoon of nutritional yeast in a high speed blender and mixing it with the sauce. Use ½ cup of cashews and ½-1 cups water.

This sauce is high in fiber with all the vegetables. It also has a lot of vitamin A, carotenoids. One portion covers half of your daily needs. This is also high in vitamin C, although heating destroys half of it, in one portion you still get half of needed vitamin c that you need.