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Dinner

Easy Vegan Soy Milk Ramen

This Easy Vegan Soy Milk Ramen is flavorful, lightly creamy, and can be ready in 20 minutes. The broth has miso and lots of aromatics and it’s topped with avocado, zucchini, and tomato. Homemade chili oil takes it to the next level.

Light creamy soy milk ramen noodle soup

Intro to the Easy Soy Milk Ramen

I’ve made a couple of different variations of ramen on the blog so far. Each time, I find new ways to develop and enhance the flavors and create a new culinary experience. I’m experimenting so I can help you make tastier food with less effort.

Ramen is one of those dishes that can take a long time to make, and traditionally it does. But as a home cook myself, I understand that most people don’t have several hours to dedicate to making dinner. This ramen recipe is meant to be a quicker version, yet it still has many of the things that make restaurant ramen really enjoyable.

Two bowls of light creamy soy milk ramen noodle soup with avocado and tomato

The Components of the Easy Soy Milk Ramen

I modeled this ramen after one that I tried at Mr. Taka, a ramen shop in the city.

The Soy Milk Broth

The broth is creamy from soy milk, but it’s not rich and heavy like a tonkotsu. It’s infused with garlic, ginger, and kombu (seaweed) so it’s quite fragrant. Sake, miso, and nutritional yeast are included as natural flavor enhancers.

The Toppings

I was particularly impressed by the toppings on the vegan ramen at Mr. Taka. In a departure from tradition, they included blistered tomatoes and zucchini and raw avocado slices. Flavor-wise they are mild but deeply satisfying and pair perfectly with the light creamy broth.

Menma, fermented bamboo shoots flavored with soy sauce and sesame oil, is also included. It’s got such a nice chewy-crunchy texture and the flavors fit seamlessly with the other ingredients.

The Homemade Chili Oil

While the creamy broth, unusual toppings, and toothy noodles are great together, if you appreciate a bit of spice in your food, you have to try this with homemade chili oil.

I developed a chili oil recipe to use in a few different dishes and it’s really handy, not to mention super flavorful. It’s made of chili flakes, chipotle powder, Chinese five-spice, Sichuan peppercorns, and sesame oil. It’s spicy, nutty, smoky, and aromatic.

If you already have some bottled chili oil on hand, you can use that instead, but it won’t be as tasty as homemade.

Homemade vegan ramen with tomato, zucchini, avocado, and menma

Tips on Purchasing

There are a few items that may be unfamiliar to you. Here are some pointers on shopping for them:

  • Kombu – it’s a dried seaweed most often used to make broth. The recipe calls for it to be simmered in the broth to add umami flavor. You can use it in any soup or broth so it’s great to have on hand.
  • Miso – this is among my most-used ingredients. It’s made of fermented beans and grains. There are many, many different varieties, but I usually go for a lighter-colored one, known as “shiro” (white) or “awase” (yellow). For this recipe make sure your miso doesn’t contain bonito or other fish ingredients.
  • Nutritional Yeast – another of my most used ingredients. You add it to the broth right before serving for an extra bit of creaminess (and a vitamin B12 boost!).

Homemade soy milk vegan ramen close-up

More Plant-Based Ramen Recipes

  • Tonkotsu Ramen and Broth – supremely rich, creamy, and nutty cashew cream broth
  • Miso Ramen – deep umami broth with a hint of spiciness, topped with king oyster “scallops”

Some Plant-Based Japanese-Inspired Appetizers

As always, if you try this recipe out, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @gastroplant on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

Easy Vegan Soy Milk Ramen Noodle Soup
Print Recipe

Easy Vegan Soy Milk Ramen

This Vegan Easy Soy Milk Ramen is flavorful, lightly creamy, and can be ready in 20 minutes. The broth has miso and lots of aromatics and it’s topped with avocado, zucchini, and tomato. Homemade chili oil takes it to the next level.
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Course: Dinner, Soup
Cuisine: Japanese
Servings: 2
Author: Thomas

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons peanut oil or a neutral oil
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh garlic pressed or minced
  • 2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced or grated
  • 1 piece kombu 2*4 inches (5*10 centimeters)
  • 2 Tablespoons miso
  • 1/4 cup sake or vegetable stock or water
  • 3 cups soy milk or other plant milk, unsweetened and unflavored
  • 1 cup vegetable broth or water
  • 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 portions ramen noodles preferably fresh or frozen, can be dried
  • 1 Tablespoon neutral oil
  • 1 medium tomato halved and sliced into 1/2-inch (1-centimeter) thick slices
  • 1 zucchini sliced into 1/4-inch (1/2-centimeter) thick slices
  • 1/2 hass avocado sliced
  • 4 ounces menma (110 grams)
  • homemade chili oil to taste or bottled (optional)

Instructions

  • Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger. Cook and stir until the garlic becomes translucent, 3-4 minutes.
  • Add the miso and kombu. Stir until the miso is well integrated with the ginger and garlic.
  • Add the sake and stir to scrape up any brown bits stuck on the bottom of the saucepan. Once the sake begins to boil, let it cook for 2 minutes as you stir.
  • Add the soy milk and vegetable broth. Give it a stir. When it returns to a boil, reduce heat to low. Cover the saucepan and let it simmer for at least 10 minutes to develop the flavor.
  • While the broth is simmering, cook the ramen noodles according to the instructions on the package. Drain the noodles and set them aside.
  • Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced tomato and zucchini. Cook the tomato and zucchini, turning occasionally until blistered on both sides. This should take 2-4 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.
  • Just before serving, remove and discard the kombu from the broth. Then stir the nutritional yeast into the broth. Taste some of it and add salt, if needed.
  • Prepare a bowl for each serving of ramen. Divide evenly among the bowls the ramen noodles, broth, tomato, zucchini, avocado, menma, and chili oil. Serve immediately.

Notes

If you prefer a smooth broth, you can pour it through a mesh strainer as you serve it into the bowls.
Easy Homemade Ramen Noodle Soup with Soy Milk Broth (Vegan)

Salad

Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad

The Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad has carrots, tomatoes, oranges, olives, mushrooms, and homemade croutons. The clean and contrasting flavors make for an easy and satisfying salad for any season.

Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad

Stumbling upon the Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad

I came across this salad while traveling in Italy last year and it struck me as interesting, despite its simple ingredients. There were two ingredients in particular – radicchio and fennel root – that I was unfamiliar with at the time. But they added so much to the salad that I wanted to recreate the recipe and share it with you.

The salad had lots of familiar ingredients, too, but in an unexpected combination. There were tomatoes, oranges, olives, arugula, sliced white mushrooms, and croutons. Lots of these ingredients are pretty standard in salads. But the combination of the orange and olive was especially nice due to the sweet-savory contrast.

Ingredients for the salad: arugula, romaine, radicchio, orange, carrot, tomato, fennel root, olives, mushrooms, croutons

A Bit About Fennel Root

I had only ever had fennel root cooked before this salad, never raw. When sliced thin, the texture is crunchy and crisp like celery, but without any of the stringy strands. And the flavor has a very mild tinge of anise or licorice. I could practically put it in any salad because of the nice texture and its flavor will never be overpowering. It’s also got a good nutritional profile. Now that I’m familiar with the root, I’m surprised it doesn’t appear more commonly in salads.

Mixing Healthy Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad

A Word About Radicchio

It may look like a small purple cabbage, but the flavor is totally different. Radicchio is among the bitterest vegetables I’ve tried. I don’t think I would ever eat it by itself, it’s that bitter. But paired with sweet, savory, and sour flavors, radicchio adds a special depth of flavor. Together with the oranges, olives, and vinegar dressing it makes an interestingly nuanced salad.

Raw Mushrooms?

I was surprised to see raw white mushrooms when I tried the original version of this salad. It used to be common to see raw mushrooms in salad bars in the US, but I see it less and less nowadays. It turns out that there is no public consensus on whether mushrooms should be eaten raw. Some people support it while others don’t. If you prefer to skip the raw mushrooms, please feel free to do so. The salad will still be delicious.

Homemade Croutons

You can use pre-made store-bought croutons, but I urge you to make your own at home. You just need a few slices of bread and a way to toast them up. You can use the toaster, the oven, or a hot skillet.

  • The toaster is the easiest but doesn’t really create crispy croutons that aren’t burned.
  • The oven is fairly hands off and crisps them nicely. It’s a good choice if you’re going oil-free.
  • The skillet gets slightly better results than the oven but requires more attention. I use the skillet if I’m going to use oil on the croutons (either olive oil or plant butter).

Toasting croutons in a skillet

The Dressing

This is the easiest part. Since there is so much depth and variety of flavor among the salad ingredients, the dressing consists of just white wine vinegar. There isn’t much need for anything else – the salad is already salty, sweet, bitter, and juicy. The refreshing tartness of the white wine vinegar ties everything together succinctly.

Oil-Free Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad

More Unusual but Delicious Salads

If you try this recipe out, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @gastroplant on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad
Print Recipe

Italian Fennel & Radicchio Salad

The salad has fennel, radicchio, carrots, tomatoes, oranges, olives, mushrooms, and homemade croutons. The clean and contrasting flavors make for an easy and satisfying salad for any season.
Course: Salad
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Thomas

Equipment

  • Skillet
  • Salad Bowl

Ingredients

Salad

  • 2-4 cups romaine lettuce chopped
  • 2-4 cups arugula
  • 1 cup radicchio sliced very thinly
  • 1 cup fennel root sliced very thinly
  • 1 cup carrot shredded or julienned
  • 1.5 cups grape or cherry tomatoes cut in half
  • 2 medium oranges peeled and chopped
  • 1 cup pitted black olives cut in half

Croutons

  • 2 cups bread cut into 3/4-inch (2-cm) cubes
  • 1-2 Tablespoons oil plant-based butter or olive oil (optional)

Dressing

  • 2-3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

Instructions

Cook the Croutons

  • In the toaster - Before cutting the bread into cubes, toast the slices of bread until crispy. Apply oil as desired.
  • In the oven - Spread bread cubes in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Stir with oil as desired. Place baking sheet in the oven as it preheats to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Check on croutons frequently as you bake them until golden and crispy, turning once. It should take 7-15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool.
  • In a skillet - Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the bread cubes and spread them into a single layer. Turn bread cubes frequently until they are golden brown on all sides, 7-10 minutes. Reduce the heat if the oil starts to burn. Transfer to a bowl to cool.

Mix the Salad

  • Combine all the “Salad” ingredients with the croutons in a large bowl. Add the dressing 1 Tablespoon at a time as you stir the salad. Try a piece and add more dressing as needed. Toss to mix well.

Notes

The range in number of cups for the romaine and arugula is given as a guide. You can adjust amounts of these as you prefer. The rest of the ingredients are intended to accompany about 4-6 cups of greens.
You can use store-bought croutons but they won’t be as good.
Easy Healthy Italian Fennel and Radicchio Salad Collage

Dinner

Vegan Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

This vegan puttanesca pasta is simple but massively satisfying. The tomato sauce is emboldened by olives, capers, and miso. Fresh parsley and shredded nori give a bright pop and mild taste of the sea.

Easy Vegan Spaghetti Puttanesca with olives and capers

What inspired this Vegan Puttanesca

I’ve had and enjoyed regular Puttanesca several times in my life and really appreciate the simplicity and convenience of the dish. The idea is that you can take a few items you’ve got in your pantry and make a pretty tasty pasta sauce in not much time. In the original version, the olives, capers, and anchovies serve the purpose of elevating and enhancing the tomatoes and they do a pretty good job.

I thought this dish would be a good candidate for veganization because only the anchovy would need to be replaced. They type of canned anchovy used in puttanesca is known for its extreme saltiness and a bit of umami and taste of the sea. I opted for some more delicate replacements here. A mild miso and some shredded nori (the type of seaweed used to wrap sushi) add largely the same flavor elements in a way that is not overpowering.

If I had one complaint about the flavor of the original version, it’s that even a small piece of canned anchovy can overwhelm several bites of pasta with its saltiness. Since miso is easy to spread throughout the sauce, we can avoid this issue.

For reference, I consulted two very reliable resources when developing this recipe – the Italian internet and Serious Eats.

Ingredients for vegan puttanesca: pasta, tomatoes, olives, olive oil, garlic, capers, nori, miso, and parsley

What makes this dish great

Simplicity – The sauce requires relatively few ingredients for the level of flavor you get from it. Prep is easy and quick and involves just slicing the garlic and chopping the olives, capers, and parsley. The nori can be shredded using scissors once you’ve finished cooking. And cooking should only take about 20 minutes, including boiling the pasta.

Big flavor – The dish has a few flavor enhancers including capers, olives, and miso. And they all work toward the same goal of making a flavorful savory tomato sauce. And the olive oil creates a rich, almost creamy mouthfeel.

Easy Umami Vegan Spaghetti Puttanesca in a Skillet

The cooking process for Vegan Puttanesca

Making this dish is really straightforward. Once you’ve prepped everything, you start boiling water for the pasta. On another burner, you heat olive oil in a skillet, saute garlic, red pepper flakes, and capers. Once they’re browned, mix in the miso and tomatoes, combining everything and breaking apart the canned whole tomatoes. Cook the sauce a while to reduce. While the sauce reduces, boil and drain the pasta. Then stir the pasta, olives, and parsley into the sauce.A

Quick Simple Vegan Spaghetti Puttanesca Sauce Pasta with Olives

Some cooking notes before you start

Spaghetti appears to be the most common type of pasta used with Puttanesca. You can use any type of long pasta you like, but keep in mind the boiling time. Pick one that needs no more than 10 minutes of boiling time.

Shown in the photos is angel hair pasta. This type has the shortest cooking time but requires more attention because it can easily be overcooked.

Regardless of the pasta you use, you’ll want to undercook by 1-2 minutes when you boil it, so it will be just cooked after being mixed in the sauce for 1-2 minutes.

The quantity of pasta can range from 8-16 ounces (250-500 grams) and this depends on your preferred pasta-to-sauce ratio. I like my pasta extra saucy so I only used 8 ounces (250 grams) when I tested the recipe. Feel free to adjust the amount of pasta based on your meal plan.

Miso can vary a lot in its potency and one way to judge the potency is the amount of sodium (saltiness) per tablespoon. The one I used in this recipe is particularly mild and contains about 450 milligrams of sodium. Some Japanese misos contain as much as 800 milligrams. Check your miso before adding it. If the amount is in the 500-600 range, you can reduce the amount of miso by a third. If in the 700-800 range, you can reduce the amount by half. You can always add more toward the end.

The photos show whole olives, but slicing them will allow better distribution throughout the pasta. Some olives are especially salty, so the flavor will be more even if you distribute them.

I recommend rinsing the olives and capers because they can be especially salty.

Quick Vegan Spaghetti Puttanesca for dinner

More Plant-Based Italian-Inspired Recipes

If you try this recipe out, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @gastroplant on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

Vegan Spaghetti Puttanesca Square
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Vegan Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

This vegan puttanesca pasta is simple but massively satisfying. The tomato sauce is emboldened by olives, capers, and miso. Fresh parsley and shredded nori give a bright pop and mild taste of the sea.
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4
Author: Thomas

Ingredients

  • 8-16 ounces Spaghetti or other long thin pasta (250-500 grams)
  • 4 cloves garlic sliced thinly
  • 4 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 sushi-size (8x8 inch / 20x20 inch) sheet of nori shredded
  • 1 Tablespoon miso or more or less, depending on intensity - see note
  • 3.5 ounces pitted black olives sliced in half lengthwise and rinsed (100 grams)
  • 2 tablespoons capers rinsed and chopped
  • 28 ounces peeled canned tomatoes (800 grams)
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley plus more to garnish

Instructions

  • Boil the pasta according to the package instructions, but about 1 minute less than recommended. You want it to be firm because it will be cooked a bit more in the sauce. Reserve at least 1 cup of the boiling water for later use.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, pepper flakes, capers. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until the garlic is very lightly browned.
  • Add the miso and stir together with the ingredients. Cook for 1 minute.
  • Add the tomatoes along with the juice in the can. Turn to medium heat Break the tomatoes apart with the spatula. Continue cooking for 10 minutes, stirring often.
  • Add the pasta, olives, parsley, and spaghetti. Use a pair of tongs to stir well. Continue cooking until the pasta is perfectly al dente, 1-2 minutes. If the mixture becomes dry at any point, gradually add pasta boiling water and stir. The consistency should be saucy but thick enough to eat with a fork.
  • Taste and season with salt and black pepper as needed. You may not need much salt since the ingredients are already quite salty.
  • Serve pasta immediately, garnishing with nori and more parsley.

Notes

The quantity of pasta can range from 8-16 ounces (250-500 grams) and this depends on your preferred pasta-to-sauce ratio. I like my pasta extra saucy so I only used 8 ounces (250 grams) when I tested the recipe. Feel free to adjust the amount of pasta based on your meal plan.
Miso can vary a lot in its potency and one way to judge the potency is the amount of sodium (saltiness) per tablespoon. The one I used in this recipe is particularly mild and contains about 450 milligrams of sodium. Some Japanese misos contain as much as 800 milligrams. Check your miso before adding it. If the amount is in the 500-600 range, you can reduce the amount of miso by a third. If in the 700-800 range, you can reduce the amount by half.
Easy Vegan Spaghetti Puttanesca Collage

Appetizer

Air Fryer Tomatoes

These Air Fryer Tomatoes are beautifully simple. The flavor is highly concentrated with notes of smokiness, yet the texture is tender and juicy. The tomatoes shine so much on their own that they hardly need any seasoning. They’re as versatile as raw tomatoes – put them in salads or sandwiches or on pizza or crostini.

Easy Air Fryer Tomatoes with Baguette

Simplicity as a goal

As a recipe developer, it’s easy for me to get caught up in complicated cooking methods that use a couple dozen ingredients. I’m trying to avoid that tendency and stay away from needless complication. Often a single high-quality ingredient, cooked properly, creates a superior experience.

Fresh tomatoes for roasting

Developing the tomato flavor

Starting from the premise that concentrated tomato flavor is quite nice on its own (observing this from sundried tomatoes and tomato paste) I wanted to see how much I could develop their flavor using the air fryer. Some recipes go for complete dehydration, which can take a few hours. I was aiming to get similar flavor concentration to dehydrated tomatoes, but keep the tomatoes tender. I also wanted to experiment with putting a char on the tomatoes. I have grilled tomatoes in the past and the smokiness adds another nice dimension.

Air fryer tomatoes close-up

The experiment

I tried a few different kinds of tomatoes, as shown in the photos here. They included Roma (aka plum), Campari (the smallish round ones), on-the-vine (both yellow and orange), and heirloom (the big irregularly shaped ones). My cooking method went as follows: air fry at medium-low temperature until sufficiently dehydrated then air fry at the highest temperature briefly to get a smoky char on the outside. The method was the same for all the varieties, though the low-temperature roasting time varied a lot depending on the size and type of tomato. Obviously, larger tomatoes and those with higher liquid content will take longer to dehydrate. You can see from the photo (particularly the fourth stage) what I mean by “sufficiently dehydrated”.

I cut each tomato in half, heightwise and placed each piece as if it were a bowl, to minimize the leaking of the juice. It’s important that the juice stays in the fruit so the water can evaporate and the flavor can concentrate.

As a sanity check, and to make sure I didn’t destroy the tomatoes, I started from the “Air Fryer Dried Tomatoes” recipe in Kathy Hester‘s book Vegan Cooking in Your Air Fryer. I recommend that book if you’re interested in a thorough and diverse collection of vegan air fryer recipes.

Air fryer tomatoes cooking process

The tomato varieties

Roma

These tomatoes have the lowest water content and are relatively small. They dehydrate quickly and hold their shape well. The flavor isn’t as concentrated as the others but they’re still tasty.

Campari

They are juicier than the Roma tomatoes but still quite small, so they cook quickly and have great flavor. Because of the higher liquid content, they do become slightly fragile after roasting and should be handled carefully.

On-the-vine

These are less juicy than the Roma, but not as dry as the Campari. They’re larger than either of the previous two, so they take more time to cook. Overall, I don’t think they were as flavorful in this application, so I don’t recommend them unless they’re the ripest ones available to you.

Heirloom

I almost felt bad experimenting with heirloom tomatoes because they are so glorious when eaten raw. And these tomatoes are larger than the others, so they take longer to cook. But I didn’t regret it once I tasted the final product. They have a ton of flavor and hold their shape quite well. If you do go for heirloom tomatoes, be sure to choose the smallest ripe ones.

Grape / Cherry / San Marzano

These tomatoes are smaller than those I tested, so they should cook quite quickly. If you can get your hands on some ripe ones and want to cook them quickly, I’d recommend trying these, using the guidelines given in the recipe. Just be careful not to overcook them – the margin of error will be smaller.

Easy air fryer tomatoes

Serving tips

I ate the tomatoes I roasted on slices of baguette (aka crostini) and it was plenty flavorful. The tomatoes can benefit from a few grains of salt, but it’s a matter of personal preference.

It is not (yet) a thing to eat tomatoes with a full breakfast in the US, but I love copying the British custom and serving them alongside a Tofu Scramble or Cheese Grits.

They will otherwise be great in any application where you’d use raw tomatoes – think salads, sandwiches, tacos, and pizza.

Smoky air fryer tomatoes

Some final notes

Check on your tomatoes frequently. You don’t want them to get too dried out or burned. The goal is to roast and concentrate the flavor, but not completely dehydrate them.

You can stack the tomatoes in the air fryer if you want to cook more of them at one time. They may become tricky to remove as they soften and melt into one another. They may not look as pretty at this point, but the flavor will still be there.

If you try this recipe out, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @gastroplant on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

Easy air fryer tomatoes square
Print Recipe

Air Fryer Tomatoes

Their flavor is highly concentrated with notes of smokiness, yet the texture is tender and juicy. The tomatoes shine so much on their own that they hardly need any seasoning. They’re as versatile as raw tomatoes - put them in salads or sandwiches or on pizza or crostini.
Cook Time1 hr
Course: Appetizer, Dinner, Side Dish
Cuisine: American, Italian
Author: Thomas

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ripe fresh tomatoes cherry, grape, San Marzano, Campari, Roma, on-the-vine, or heirloom, cut in half heightwise

Instructions

  • Their flavor is highly concentrated with notes of smokiness, yet the texture is tender and juicy. The tomatoes shine so much on their own that they hardly need any seasoning. They’re as versatile as raw tomatoes - put them in salads or sandwiches or on pizza or crostini.
  • 1 pound ripe fresh tomatoes (cherry, grape, San Marzano, Campari, Roma, on-the-vine, or heirloom), cut in half heightwise
  • Place cut tomatoes in the air fryer basket skin-side-down. This orientation is important to minimize the leakage of the tomato juices. Cook tomatoes at 240 F (115 C) for 45 minutes. Check on them every 10 minutes or so.
  • Continue to cook the tomatoes in 15-minute intervals until they are about half their original size (the shrinkage may mostly be in depth. Use the photos above as a guide.) Larger, juicier tomatoes will require more time. The heirloom tomatoes I tried required about 1 hour and 15 minutes in this stage.
  • At this point, you can either serve the tomatoes or air fry them at high temperature to get a smoky char. This depends on your preference.
  • To achieve the smoky char, cook the tomatoes in the air fryer at 390 F (200 C) for 5-6 minutes. Again, use the photos in the blog post as a guide for doneness.
  • When removing the tomatoes from the air fryer, be careful not to rupture the tomatoes, as the juices contain a lot of flavor at this point. A spoon may be the best utensil to use to remove them.

Notes

Smaller tomatoes are recommended for shorter cooking times.
Though large heirloom tomatoes do offer very rich flavor.
Choose tomatoes on the riper end of the spectrum.
You can store roasted tomatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Easy roasted air fryer tomatoes collage

Dinner

Vegan Bolognese

This Vegan Bolognese sauce is a plant-based take on the classic red pasta sauce. It uses a variety of veggies, lots of fresh herbs, mushrooms, and lentils to unlock a ton of flavor. The texture of the sauce is thick and meaty enough to coat whatever pasta strikes your fancy.

Healthy Vegan Bolognese Sauce on Italian Pasta

Mushrooms belong in red sauce(?)

I grew up eating two main types of red pasta sauce. If my parents were feeling up for the task, they’d make a giant stock pot of a meaty bolognese with mushrooms. Much of that would get frozen and we could bring it out for several meals over the next month or so. If they were in a pinch for time, though, we’d almost always have a jar of Classico brand sauce with mushrooms.

Though it may not be part of a classic bolognese recipe, mushrooms just always felt right in the sauce. I realized this at the age of ten when I was invited to go camping with some Boy Scouts for a night in the woods. The host troop was gracious enough to serve us spaghetti for dinner. Being the young food critic that I was, I called them out on their Ragu brand sauce, which tasted bland to me. (I didn’t understand the rudeness of my matter-of-fact statement until my dad informed me of it later. Super embarrassing.) I didn’t know that it was the mushrooms that were lacking at the time, but now I can totally see how I could have found a mushroomless sauce bland.

Ingredients for a healthy meaty vegan bolognese sauce

Developing the Vegan Bolognese

When I was coming up with this recipe, there were a few different goals. The first was to make a delicious tomato-based sauce with the right consistency, emphasis on the word delicious. If it doesn’t taste good, it’s not worth sharing. I also wanted to use a wide variety of vegetables to make the sauce especially nutritious. And the sauce needed to have mushrooms, because of the important lesson I had learned as a kid.

With these goals in mind, I checked out a couple of recipes, including an omnivorous one from an Italian cooking site and a vegan one from Serious Eats. I got some ideas about how simple the sauce could be from the former, as well as how complicated it could be from the latter. I went for something in between.

How to make a perfect vegan bolognese

What makes the Vegan Bolognese tasty

There are a few components that make the sauce delicious, but they can be summed up in terms of veggies, herbs, and enhancers.

The vegetable ingredients include onion, carrot, celery, eggplant, mushrooms, and lentils. The variety here creates a very well rounded flavor that just tastes savory. And there is the added bonus of nutritional diversity, too. The veggies are sauteed by themselves and then stewed with the rest of the ingredients. This makes it so that some of them get very soft (eggplant, mushroom) while others stay somewhat firm and give the sauce some toothiness.

The herbs include fresh garlic, basil, thyme, sage, and parsley. They are mostly added fairly early in the cooking process and mellow out as the sauce simmers. They add to the roundness of the overall flavor of the sauce and make it more fragrant. You can some fresh herbs to garnish your finished dishes and it will add a whole other layer of flavor depth.

There are a few different enhancers used to help the sauce pop – miso, soy sauce, white wine, and bay leaf. The miso and soy sauce elevate the other ingredients in similar ways. The glutamates they contain do that really effectively. The wine works slightly differently – I used it to deglaze the pot after sauteeing the vegetables, boiling it down until it’s completely evaporated. This helps collect the caramelized flavors left on the pot by the sauteed vegetables. It also makes the sauce slightly fruitier. Bay leaf adds a hard-to-describe aroma to the sauce that somehow makes the overall flavor more balanced.

I also included some shelled hemp hearts for extra substance and texture. And unsweetened, unflavored plant milk for a subtle creamy sweetness to balance the tartness of the tomato sauce and paste.

Two bowls of pasta topped with vegan bolognese

More than a few cooking notes before you start

The recipe calls for dry white wine, but you can use red wine instead. The flavor will be very slightly different but the overall effect of flavor enhancement will be there.

You can skip the hemp hearts if you like. They are sort of an added bonus.

The recipe makes enough for four servings. I recommend making a double batch if you have any doubts about the quantity being enough. The sauce freezes well and may get eaten faster than you expect.

If you’d like to make the sauce into a creamy version, you can add the cashew cream from my creamy vegan mushroom pasta (cashews, plant milk, nutritional yeast, optional dried mushrooms). Start by adding half of the mushroom cream, stirring, and tasting it. This may turn the sauce pink.

I try to steer clear from processed meat replacement products in my recipes, but if you’re interested in one, the “hot Italian” sausage from Beyond Meat is delicious and pairs perfectly with the sauce. Despite the name, this sausage is not particularly spicy. Just grill some up in a skillet over medium heat, slice them, and add some to each serving of pasta.

It’s OK to be generous with the olive oil in this recipe. I tend to add a bit more, maybe an extra half or one tablespoon, and it adds to the richness of the sauce.

It’s also OK to add more mushrooms than called for. They shrink down a lot once cooked and will make for great flavor.

The recipe recommends mincing or dicing the vegetables (onion, carrot, celery, eggplant, mushroom) into very small pieces. This helps create imitate the “ground meat” consistency of the original bolognese. If you prefer not to do so much chopping, and you’re OK with larger pieces of vegetables, you can just slice them.

You can use a food processor to mince the vegetables as well. This will save some time and energy but will produce a slightly different consistency (the pieces will be smaller and less distinct).

Healthy Vegan Bolognese Sauce on Italian Pasta

More Italian-inspired plant-based goodness

If you try this recipe out, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @gastroplant on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

Healthy Vegan Bolognese Sauce on Italian Pasta
Print Recipe

Vegan Bolognese

This take on the classic red pasta sauce uses a variety of veggies, lots of fresh herbs, mushrooms, and lentils to unlock a ton of flavor. And the texture is thick and meaty enough to coat whatever pasta strikes your fancy.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time45 mins
Total Time1 hr
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4
Author: Thomas

Ingredients

Vegetables

  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 onion minced or diced finely
  • 1 rib celery minced or diced finely
  • 1 medium carrot minced or diced finely
  • 1/2 pound mushrooms white or brown; minced or diced finely
  • 1/4 large eggplant peeled and minced or diced finely

Herbs

  • 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley chopped finely
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh basil chopped finely
  • 1 Tablespoon fresh sage chopped finely
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves chopped finely

Sauce

  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 Tablespoon miso
  • 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup shelled hemp hearts
  • 1 cup vegetable stock
  • 15 oz canned tomato sauce
  • 1 can cooked lentils 15-oz
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened unflavored plant milk

Optional Garnishes

  • Parsley basil, and sage leaves, chopped finely
  • Grated vegan parmesan cheese
  • Nutritional yeast

Instructions

  • Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, and eggplant. Saute for 3 minutes, stirring continuously. Add the mushrooms, continue to stir for another 4 minutes. Add the chopped herbs and cook for 3 minutes, still stirring.
  • Add the wine and bay leaf and scrape up any bits stuck on the bottom of the pot. Cook and stir for 5 minutes, until the wine has evaporated.
  • Add the tomato paste, miso, and hemp hearts. Cook and stir for 3 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, lentils, tomato sauce, soy sauce, and plant milk, again scraping any stuck bits from the bottom of the pot. When the sauce returns to a simmer, reduce to low heat and cover the saucepan. Cook at least for another 20 minutes, up to 40 minutes to develop the flavor.
  • Serve sauce over pasta with any of the optional garnishes.

Notes

If you have any doubt about the quantity, make a double batch. It’s easy to eat a lot of this sauce.
The vegetables can be processed in a food processor to save time. Alternatively, you can just slice the vegetables and achieve a similar flavor, though the texture will be quite different from the intended meaty bolognese texture.
You can add slightly more olive oil and mushroom than called for, and it will enhance the flavor of the sauce.
You can use red wine instead of white wine.
The hemp hearts can be skipped. They add substance and nutrition to the sauce but are not essential.
The lentils don’t need to be canned. You can use pre-cooked lentils instead. The amount corresponds to 1.5-2 cups
Healthy Meaty Vegan Bolognese Sauce Collage