Vegan Courgetti Bolognese ft Hanna’s Vegetable Protein Sauce

The inspiration for this was a video on Instagram of Hanna Sillitoe (@mygoodnessrecipes) making a vegetable protein bolognese sauce to have with gluten-free spaghetti and a parmesan substitute made from almonds and nutritional yeast. (The recipe is in her new book ‘Radiant’, available on Amazon). She made it look so simple, and quick, all done in a blender and frying pan. We had some of her Tomatoless Sauce in the freezer which forms the basis of this new sauce and decided to give it a try. If you are ok with nightshade foods*, you can just use a tin of tomatoes instead. As you can see, I had it with spiralised courgette zoodles. Hanna uses blanched almonds in the ‘parmesan’ which make it look a creamy white, but mine looks more like brown sugar as they were unpeeled!

Hanna’s Instagram photos are very professional, her recipes are always quick and easy and are especially suitable for anyone trying to clear their skin.

Just over three years ago, when I first ‘met’ Hanna, she had rampant psoriasis and no relief in sight, but she began juicing and exercising, rid her diet of junk and nightshades and now has clear skin. It worked for me too, see How I Juiced My Skin Clear: A Rash Decision?

Back to this recipe: The amounts we used are somewhat imprecise, we just did a handful of this and a few spoons of that – if you want more precise measurements then do look at Hanna’s book, her website or Instagram feed. She uses ingredients from Aldi UK to demonstrate that you can still eat healthily on a budget: for instance, she used a pack of mixed rice and quinoa, but we had both organic brown basmati rice and organic quinoa in the cupboard so we cooked them and guessed the amount, using the leftovers for the next two meals.

(Aldi often sell budget blenders and juicers too which always receive good reviews).

Basic steps:

Cook some rice and some quinoa so that the grains are still separate, be careful not to overcook them. Cool a little while preparing the mushrooms. (The rice and quinoa can be cooked in advance if necessary).

Wash and chop some mushrooms, we used chestnut because I like the meaty texture. Pulse them a couple of times in a processor before adding several spoons of the rice and quinoa mixture and pulsing again until it looks like a vegetable protein mix.

Chop an onion, press some garlic and fry in coconut oil until it begins to soften, add the vegetable protein mix and the tomatoless sauce or a tin of tomatoes.

Add some mixed herbs, black pepper, salt.

In the blender, blitz a large handful of almonds and a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast until it looks like parmesan. If it makes too much, don’t worry, it will keep well in a jar in the fridge. Hanna also adds garlic powder, but we don’t use it so we had none in.

Cook some spaghetti or spiralise some courgette noodles and serve, adding some basil leaves (which I forgot for the photo!).

Hanna has several recipe videos on her Instagram feed and on her website, all quick and easy, her enthusiasm is highly contagious!

See also Hanna’s Simple Turmeric Breakfast Pot

*Nightshade foods can exacerbate inflammatory conditions such as psoriasis and arthritis and include potatoes, tomatoes, aubergine and all peppers.

Copyright: Chris McGowan