Rich and flavorful, this Vegan Sausage Ragu carries all the traditional flavor of the classic Italian dish and so much more.  Fresh fennel, mushrooms, lentils, and red wine make this pasta dish a beautifully healthy alternative.  It is every bit as hearty and indulgent as a traditional ragu. Perfectly seasoned, coupled with amazing texture, it is sure to knock your socks off, making this dish a new family favorite. Whole Food Plant Based recipe, no oil, no sugar, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.

Hi!  Robin here.

I have been making traditional Italian dishes for almost 40 years.  I married an Italian, and I love to cook; back then, as a newly married person, I wanted to learn to cook authentic Italian cuisine.  Of course, my Italian husband was all for it.  Every Sunday (without fail), I would make a huge pot of Italian sauce (gravy/ragu) with meatballs and sausage.  Sunday dinners would be a feast of ragu, pasta, salad, and thick, crusty Italian bread.

Each week, I would let the kids pick the pasta.  Monkey would always pick spaghetti.  Chris was more adventurous and liked to switch things up, but he loved gnocchi (me too!).  It was a tradition for many generations . . . until I became a vegetarian, then a Whole Food Plant Based Vegan.  The gravy train ended right there . . . pun intended. HAH!

TP109, my Italian husband

My husband LOVES his pasta! It was a tough transition for him to not get his sausage and meatballs every Sunday; so much so, that I found that he was “sneaking” over to Fazoli’s for meatballs.  Thank you “Friend Finder” app!  HAHAHA!

It was that realization that Monkey and I sat down to see if we could come up with a recipe that would be as hearty, and as delicious as his classic Italian favorites.  With a bunch of kitchen tests, and pounds of pasta later, we finally landed on a beautiful ragu dish that TP109 absolutely loves. It has all the flavor, but no sausage or meatballs.  The hearty lentils and mushrooms flavored with a hint of fennel mimic the flavors found in Italian sausage.  Fazoli’s will have to find a new patron!

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Vegan Wine

I love the added flavor the Vegan Wine offers to this dish.  We used a Spanish red wine called Honoro Vera.  It works perfectly with this dish.  The Honoro Vera adds this beautiful deep note of flavor that really compliments this sauce deliciously.  I would not recommend leaving it out.

List of Vegan Wines

If you are looking for a Vegan wine, I would recommend checking out this website http://www.barnivore.com/wine.  We use it all the time as we love adding both red and white wines to our dishes.  You would be surprised to find out how many wines are not actually vegan. I was naïve and assumed they were all vegan.

Ameera here!

LOVE this dish!  What is so crazy is that you all know by now that I am not a huge mushroom fan, but I absolutely loved them in this ragu.  I think what I like the most about this dish is that it really has that traditional Italian sausage flavor.  The fennel really gives you the impression that sausage was a main component of this dish because as most of you know fennel (anise) is such a predominant ingredient in Italian sausage.  You get all of that flavor without the actual sausage. I think that is probably what surprised my dad the most.  He was super happy and devoured this dish and couldn’t stop raving about it.  He never got tired of all the kitchen tests in order to find the perfect combination of flavors.  He was happy to keep taste-testing each batch.  He loved offering his “expert” Italian opinion for improvements.   He wanted to make sure that I captured that statement (“his expert opinion”) for our blog.  LOL

Annnnnnnnnd don’t for get to add the Vegan Parmesan Cheese for that tiny extra boost of flavor! 😉

We hope all you Italian cuisine lovers out there give this recipe a try!  We absolutely love this dish and we hope you do too!

Products Used:

• Instant Pot (if using the Instant Pot cooking method)
• 8-quart ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven or similar stock pot (if using the stove top cooking method)
• Food Processor
• Strainer (to rinse the lentils)

Vegan Sausage Ragu

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Yield: 6-8 Servings 1x
• Category: Pasta, Sauces
• Cuisine: Italian

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Description

Rich and flavorful, this Vegan Sausage Ragu carries all the traditional flavor of the classic Italian dish and so much more.  Fresh fennel, mushrooms, lentils, and red wine make this pasta dish a beautifully healthy alternative.  It is every bit as hearty and indulgent as a traditional ragu. Perfectly seasoned, coupled with amazing texture, it is sure to knock your socks off, making this dish a new family favorite. Whole Food Plant Based recipe, no oil, no sugar, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 medium yellow onion, cut into chunks
• 1 small fennel head, cut into chunks (some stores call fennel, anise)
• 1 teaspoon dried fennel seeds, crushed (measure after seeds are crushed)
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
• 8 or 10 oz. Baby Bella mushrooms (baby portabellas), sliced
• 1 – [ 28 oz. can ] whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 – [ 15 oz. can ] tomato sauce
• 1 – [ 6 oz. can ] tomato paste
• 2 ½ cups water
• ¾ cup red wine
• 2/3 cup dry small brown lentils *

Spice/Herb Ingredients: 

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 3 teaspoons sea salt (+/-)
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper (+/-)
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flake

Other Ingredients

• Cooked pasta of choice/gluten free pasta of choice (see notes*)
• Vegan Parmesan Cheese

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

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Instructions

Instant Pot Instructions

1. Place the chopped onion, fennel head, minced garlic and dried fennel seeds into a food processor and process until finely minced.  Set aside.  (Fennel Note:  Remove the fennel fronds (thin leaves), remove the tiny tough core before placing in the food processor. You can save the fennel fronds for decoration or toss on a salad. )
2. Place the sliced mushrooms into the Instant Pot, and sauté on high until all the water has been released from the mushroom.  Carefully remove from the mushrooms from the instant pot. Set aside.
3. Add the minced fennel mixture (previously processed in the food processor from Step 1) into the instant pot and use the sauté mode.  Sauté over high to release the water.  Once the water has released, turn off the Instant Pot.
4. In the meantime, place the whole peeled tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste in the food processor and process until the whole peeled tomatoes, sauce and paste are well blended, then add to the Instant Pot.
5. Add the mushrooms back into the Instant Pot, and all the remaining ingredients to the Instant Pot.  Set to manual pressure, high, and process for 14 minutes.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes undisturbed, then do a quick release.
6. Serve over cooked pasta of choice. Top with Vegan Parmesan cheese.

Stove Top Instructions:

1. Place the chopped onion, fennel head, minced garlic and dried fennel seeds into a food processor and process until finely minced.  Set aside. (Fennel Note:  Remove the fennel fronds (thin leaves), remove the tiny tough core before placing in the food processor. You can save the fennel fronds for decoration or toss on a salad. )
2. Place the sliced mushrooms into a large ceramic/enamel lined Dutch Oven (or similar stock pot), and sauté on high until all the water has been released from the mushroom.  Carefully remove from the mushrooms from the Dutch Oven. Set aside.
3. Add the minced fennel mixture (previously processed in the food processor from Step 1) into the Dutch Oven, and sauté to release the water, approx. 5-7 minutes.
4. In the meantime, place the whole peeled tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste in the food processor and process until the whole peeled tomatoes, sauce and paste are well blended, then place into the Dutch oven.
5. Add the mushrooms back into the Dutch oven, and all the remaining ingredients to the Dutch Oven.  Bring to a boil, then immediately lower to a simmer. Simmer until the lentils are tender, approx. 25 to 35 minutes, largely dependent upon the type of lentils being used as some take longer than others.
6. Serve over cooked pasta of choice.  Top with Vegan Parmesan Cheese.

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Notes

*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Small Brown Lentils (Pardina/Spanish Brown):  You can substitute any type of lentil for the brown lentil (other than red); however, you may need to adjust the cooking time.  Small brown lentils typically cook a little faster than green lentils.  We have found that the Small Brown Lentil works beautifully with this recipe.

*Pasta:  Use your favorite pasta.  We used a gluten free flat lasagna noodle, par-boiled, then cut into strips, then boiled until al dente for photography purposes.  We would not recommend doing this as it just simply takes too long.  We have placed this ragu over many different types of pasta, and it always works beautifully.

*Nutritional Information: Does not include pasta

Storage:  Refrigerate, use within one week.  

This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here