Vegetarian Bolognese Pasta

Going vegan is not easy, but I am making an effort every meal I make. Nowadays, I don't even stop by the meat isles in the stores anymore. With the current social distancing recommendations, we also procured quite a bit of beans and pasta - since they have a long shelf life and would last us for a long time. What better time to learn how to make legume dishes than now? In the current societal situation - this will keep me busy for sure.

Legumes are not always user friendly: some contain a lot of FODMAP - which stands for "fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols". Yes that's a long word but just know our bodies need these, in order to keep our gut bacteria in check. The not so nice consequence though: gas. Gassy bellies are terrible, bloating and painful bellies are no-one's friend. lucky enough, if you prep the legumes properly, you would get less of the bad symptoms and keep the benefits. 

I had a vegetarian Bolognese pasta dish at Jamie's (yes that's Jamie Oliver's restaurant) once and really hoping to duplicate it. Eating out these days is getting so expensive, I might as use every opportunity as a recipe book so I can benefit from it later. Mine didn't turn out exactly like in the restaurant but pretty close - and delicious none the less. I used Rotini (spiral) pasta, but feel free to use other shapes or spaghetti.

What you need:
- 1/2 cup of green split peas/lentils (I only had green split peas at home right now so it will do)
- 2 cups of dry pasta
- half a carrot
- 2 medium or 3 small yellow onions
- 1 can of diced tomato, half can of tomato/pasta sauce
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Italian herbs: a pinch of each oregano, thyme, sage, and rosemary.

Prep:
- soak the peas in warm water for an hour. This is the preparation stage that you'd need to take the time and really make sure you don't skip. This will soften the peas so they are easier to cook through, and remember those FODMAPs, yup this will help to rid of the annoying side effects. 
- chop onions, garlic, shred carrot

Recipe:
- boil the slip peas for 30-45 min, drain. 
- cook the garlic and onions over medium pan with oil for 5-8 min. This is get all the onion-y flavors out, wait till onions are transparent and wilted. throw in the herbs to cook with the onions.
- when onions are cooked, throw in the peas, carrots, tomato sauce and diced tomato. Bring to boil and reduce to med-low and simmer the flavors - simmer for the next 15 min while you cook the pasta
- cook pasta as normal: boil salted water, cook for about 12-14 min until al dente. drain.
- serve the sauce over pasta, sprinkle Parmesan, black pepper, red pepper flakes (optional) and serve.