I try to stick to publishing one blog post a day at most, because I have so many days when I don’t get around to publishing a post, so it seems silly to have 2 posts one day, but… I’m breaking that rule now because I have so many recipes that people have asked me to share and I never get around to posting them, so maybe if I do two posts in a day here and there I’ll manage to get all the backlog published some time in the near future…
This recipe is really exciting for me because it was such a hit with my family. I had some ground beef in my freezer, but didn’t want to use it all up just for one meal, and had a bunch of lentils that I wanted to use. Only the thing is, my kids aren’t too thrilled with lentils if they know they’re eating them. I wanted to see if I could make something with both ground beef and lentils to stretch the ground beef, and be able to fool my kids into thinking it was straight meat.
It certainly was a success- my kids ate it, telling me “I really love meat, Mommy!” not realizing they were only eating half meat, half lentils…
If you don’t eat legumes, feel free to make this entirely with ground beef, or a mix of ground beef and ground chicken or turkey. If you don’t eat meat, feel free to make this entirely out of lentils, possibly a mix of red and brown lentils, or just brown or just red. It won’t taste exactly the same but it’ll still be good- just increase the spices as needed.

Sneaky Beef and Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe- Vegan and Legume Free Options

Ingredients:
1-2 tablespoons oil (I used coconut)
1 large onion
3 carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
2 cups cooked brown lentils, blended
2 1/4 cup ground beef
2 cups tomato paste
2 cups water
1-3 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
1-3 teaspoons garlic powder
1-3 teaspoons nutmeg
2-3 teaspoons oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 lb of spaghetti (gluten free spaghetti if you want it gluten free)

Instructions:
1. Boil lentils until soft. Strain, and blend either 100% of most of the way.

2. Cook the pasta. Strain and set aside.

3. Fry onions in oil.

4. Grate carrots and chop celery small. Add to onions and cook until soft.

5. Add the ground beef and cook until fully cooked in crumbles. In the middle of while it’s cooking, add the lentils.

6. Add the tomato sauce and water and spices.

7. Add wine vinegar and olive oil, and taste. Adjust the spices as necessary.

8. Mix the sauce with the pasta.

Serve hot.

Do you ever make spaghetti bolognese? What do you put in yours? Have you ever tried making something that is supposed to be with ground beef with lentils in its place, either entirely or replacing part of the meat? Was it passable or did people suspect it was lentils?
Does this look like a recipe you’d try?