Spaghetti Bolognese
Spaghetti Bolognese is one of our nation’s favourite dishes. If you love this meal but want to know if there are ways to make it a little healthier, tastier and add more veg without upping the cost, this is the place for you.
Spaghetti Bolognese is one of our nation’s favourite dishes. If you love this meal but want to know if there are ways to make it a little healthier, tastier and add more veg without upping the cost, this is the place for you.
Why is Spaghetti Bolognese great?
Spag bol recipes vary wildly. Typing “Spaghetti Bolognese recipe” into Google gives you over 40 million results, ranging from a handful of simple ingredients to long complicated lists and steps.
But Spaghetti Bolognese at its most basic is just some meat (or veggie alternative) and sauce mixed with spaghetti. It’s a balanced meal with carbs (pasta), protein (such as meat or plant proteins) and veg. It’s a pretty great choice for dinner, and is an easy one to adapt to make ever better!
Our Simple Spaghetti Bolognese recipe below is just that – meat + tomato sauce + pasta. If you are just starting out, this is the place to start!
If you already have the basics and want to work on slowly improving your recipe using our Step by Step method, try our Next Steps Spaghetti Bolognese.
Kids who engage with healthy foods are more likely to eat them, so to set yourself up for success, we’ve included tips to get kids involved in the second recipe to keep things simple.
Simple Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients:
Beef (or pork/chicken/turkey) mince – approx 400g for a family of 4 – or veggie alternative
1 jar of bolognese sauce
300g dried spaghetti
Not made a spaghetti bolognese before, or not ready to try the next steps? Start here!
Method:
Set a frying pan over medium heat, and pop a saucepan of water with a pinch of salt on another burner to bring to the boil while you make the sauce.
Add 1 tbsp oil to the frying pan and heat for a minute until it is hot, then add the mince and cook for about 3-5 mins, stirring frequently to break up the meat, until it is browned all over.
Is your saucepan of water bubbling now? When it is, add your spaghetti (if it’s too long for the pan, just snap in half first). Check the packet for how long this should cook, but it’s usually about 8-10 mins.
Carefully add the sauce to the frying pan with the meat (it may spit slightly as the pan and oil will be hot, so pour carefully from the side and turn the heat right down for a moment if you feel it needs it).
Heat until you start to get little bubbles in the sauce, then turn down the heat to low and let it simmer to cook and heat everything through, about 5 mins.
Once your pasta is cooked, drain the water (or use tongs to just pick the spaghetti out) and mix with the sauce and meat.
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step.
Once you have the basics it’s time to slowly improve your recipe using our Step by Step method to a bit better.
There are three ways to step-by-step your way to better spag bol – start where you feel most comfortable and if in doubt, start with a few veg.
Remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed!
add veg
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slow and get there than to rush to the finish line and find no one is there with you. For the best chance of success, start with a veg you know the family likes, don’t try to hide it, and build up over time. Starting with frozen veg can also mean less waste, keeping costs down, and being able to add a small amount simply.
We’ve added our top suggestions and how and when to add them to the recipe below.
better sauce
Swapping a ready-made bolognese sauce for a homemade sauce can often help the budget as well as the salt and sugar content. If making your own sauce is 20 mins you can’t spare, using a tin of chopped tomatoes or passata is an easy, cheaper, instant way to a healthier sauce. Add flavour with a pinch of salt, one of sugar and a couple of teaspoons dried mixed herbs.
reduce meat
Try a tin of cooked lentils added for the last couple of mins of cooking. If your family is skeptical, try just half a tin and perhaps even blend into the sauce, then reduce the meat while adding more lentils each time you make the meal. Freeze any leftover lentils for next time!
Alternatively, you could try half a mug of red lentils added to the sauce and cooked for 20-30 mins until soft – they’ll break up into the sauce and be barely noticeable.
Next Steps Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients:
Beef (or pork/chicken/turkey) mince – approx 200-300g for a family of 4 – or veggie alternative
1 tin cooked green lentils, drained OR 1/2 mug of red lentils
400g homemade tomato sauce OR 400g tin chopped tomatoes (add a pinch of salt, one of sugar, and 2 tsp mixed dried herbs if using tinned tomatoes)
300g dried spaghetti
A handful per person of 1-2 veg (see suggestions in recipe)
We suggest you do this in stages, slowly, and go as far as works for your family, here’s how your final recipe might come together…
Method:
Set a frying pan over medium heat, and pop a saucepan of water with a pinch of salt on another burner to bring to the boil while you make the sauce.
Add 1 tbsp oil to the frying pan and heat for a minute until it is hot, then add the mince and cook for about 5 mins, stirring frequently to break up the meat, until it is browned all over. If you want to use fresh veg, add it in with the mince so it can soften for at least 5 mins (10 mins for harder veg like carrots). Great choices here are onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, peppers, aubergines or courgettes – chop them as finely as you can to make sure they cook quickly. (Top tip: adding a small pinch of salt or covering the veg with a lid for a few mins can speed up the softening.)
Is your saucepan of water bubbling now? When it is, add your spaghetti (if it’s too long for the pan, just snap in half first). Check the packet for how long this should cook, but it’s usually about 8-10 mins. If using red lentils, hold off on this step until the sauce has been bubbling away for 10 mins as they take 20 mins to cook through.
Carefully add the red lentils (if using) and sauce or tomatoes and seasonings to the frying pan with the meat (it may spit slightly as the pan and oil will be hot, so pour carefully from the side and turn the heat right down for a moment if you feel it needs it).
Heat until you start to get little bubbles in the sauce, then turn down the heat to low and let it simmer to cook and heat everything through, about 5 mins (or 20 mins if using red lentils). If using tinned lentils and/or frozen veg, add them as you bring the sauce to a simmer and give them 5 mins to heat through. (Check packet instructions on frozen veg to be 100% sure about the time it will take to cook.) Great choices for frozen veg here include: peas, sweetcorn, sliced peppers or mushrooms, mixed veg, chargrilled veg, and squash/sweet potato chunks.
Once your pasta is cooked, drain the water (or use tongs to just pick the spaghetti out) and mix with the sauce and meat.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating. Find out more here.
Kids in the kitchen
Why not get younger kids stirring the sauce into the pasta, putting the kettle on for spaghetti, sprinkling cheese over the dinner, or chucking a couple of handfuls of your chosen veg into the pan.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to chop some fresh veg to add at the start of the meal, stir everything together in the pan, and grate cheese to serve!
Find more ideas here.
Master these skills:
Grating, Mixing, Bridge chopping, Claw chopping
Activities
Use arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you make your spag bol sauce, why not set a child up with:
Find more arts & crafts and puzzles & games on our website.
Sensory
Why not start with a spoonful of frozen peas and get them to describe what they see – maybe a pile of tiny green pebbles, alien poo, or ogre’s teeth! See if they want to chuck some into the bolognese sauce after having engaged with them.
Watch Ruth Platt’s video on sensory activities with peas for more inspiration, or get more tips, games and videos over on our Sensory page.
Serving
If your kids aren’t ready to be in the kitchen helping with part of the prep or cooking process, why not give them a job around the serving that could help them feel involved in the meal? You could ask a creative child to design some name cards for the table and a “Spaghetti Bolognese” menu card for dinner tonight. Get more ideas over on our Roles for Kids page.
Family Favourite Recipes
Use our step-by-step methods to slowly improve these favourites, too…
DO you have a question you’d like one of our experts to help you with?
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