Beef and Lentil Bolognese with Wholewheat Spaghetti

Half the meat, all of the flavour. Red lentils melt into the sauce and thicken it, so nobody notices them, and they let you use less beef without a thinner sauce. The secret is time: the onion, carrot and celery need ten minutes, and the sauce needs at least half an hour.

Dinner

Serves 4

Bowl of wholewheat spaghetti with beef and lentil bolognese sauce, topped with grated Parmesan and basil

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
400g lean beef mince (5% fat)
100g dried red lentils, rinsed
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
300ml low-salt beef or vegetable stock
1 tsp dried oregano and a bay leaf
300g wholewheat spaghetti
20g Parmesan, finely grated, and a few basil leaves, to serve

Method

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery with a pinch of salt and cook gently for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet.
Turn up the heat, add the beef and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, breaking the mince up with a spoon, until browned all over.
Stir in the tomato puree and cook for 1 minute. Add the lentils, tinned tomatoes, stock, oregano and bay leaf.
Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the lentils have broken down and the sauce is thick. Add a splash of water if it gets too dry.
About 12 minutes before the sauce is ready, cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling water until just tender. Drain, keeping a cup of the cooking water.
Remove the bay leaf and season the sauce to taste. Toss the spaghetti with the sauce, adding a little cooking water to loosen it.
Serve with Parmesan and basil. To freeze, cool the sauce quickly, then freeze in portions for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge and reheat until steaming hot all the way through.

Why it works

A serving has about 43g of protein and 13g of fibre. A typical bolognese with white pasta has about half this fibre. The difference comes from the lentils, the wholewheat pasta and the vegetables in the sauce.

Less red meat, without missing it. The NHS advises people who eat more than 90g of red or processed meat a day to cut down to 70g. Here 400g of raw beef serves four, about 70g cooked each. The lentils make up the bulk the extra meat would normally provide.

Beef is one of the best sources of iron and zinc. The iron in meat, called haem iron, is absorbed much better than the iron in plants, and it also helps you absorb the iron from the lentils. Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal testosterone levels, and red meat is one of its main sources: see the best diet for testosterone. For women with heavy periods, see iron deficiency and heavy periods.

The portion of pasta is 75g dried per person. That is a normal portion, and the fibre in wholewheat pasta slows down how quickly its carbohydrate is digested. That is why it is tagged for blood sugar. If you train hard, you may want more; if you do not, you can use 60g.

Use gluten-free pasta and check the stock if you need it to be gluten-free. For another beef dinner with beans, try the beef and black bean chilli.

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