Is there such a thing as vegetarian spag bol?

With the festivities over, I've started to look for some veggie recipes in earnest - the whole I idea was to discover new meat free-dishes, without relying on ready made food. So I consulted some vegetarian blogs.

One post in We don't eat anything with a face  had a recipe of a vegetarian spaghetti Bolognese, which can also be turned into Chilli Con Carne.

Tim and I like both Bolognese and Chilli, so I thought it would be a good start to the first full veggie week.

Now I should have realised there an then that it couldn't be right. Bolognese and Chilli are two different beasts, and though they are both made with mince... Well, they are not exactly interchangeable, are they?

Anyway, off I went to cook Veggie Spag Bol this morning. The recipe was simple enough - here it is in full.

What was intriguing about it that it used lentils instead of quorn. And a whole loads of veg: courgettes, onions, pepper, mushrooms, tinned toms, garlic.

And you know what, the result was good. But it was nothing like the real Bolognese sauce! It can do its job. I.e. you can put it on pasta, but it ain't no spag bol! And maybe if I tried the quorn version of it - it may have done it for me, but with lentils - no!

What it is - is a decent Tuesday night ratatouille with a lentil twist.

So, is there such a thing as a vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese? No. Not this one certainly.

A note to self - next time go for a genuinely veggie food, not a veggie version of meaty food (and yes, in my quest for veggie recipes I did come across  veggie haggis).

But this Bolognese-cum-ratatouille is not bad!