Lentil Bolognese for Home & Trail

Lentil bolognese is hearty, flavorful, and packed with protein, making it a satisfying vegetarian twist on the classic Italian meat sauce—perfect for both home dinners and backpacking meals.

Made with green lentils, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes, this rich and savory sauce delivers all the comfort of traditional bolognese without the meat.

It’s delicious over fettuccine and easy to dehydrate for lightweight meals on the trail.

Ingredients for Lentil Bolognese

Servings: 6–7 cups of sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups green lentils (300 g)
• 1 med. onion, finely chopped (100 g)
• 23 med. carrots, finely chopped (180 g)
• 2-3 med. celery stalks, finely chopped (100 g)
• 5-6 baby bella mushrooms, finely chopped (100 g)
• 2 tsp. cooking oil
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 tsp. dried basil
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes (800 g)
• 1½ tsp. soy sauce
• 1½ tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 3½ cups vegetable broth, divided (828 ml)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Photo: Vegetable ingredients for making lentil bolognese.

How to Make Lentil Bolognese

Overview:

• Cook the lentils separately in a large saucepan with liquid—about 25 minutes.
• Cook the sauce in a frying pan while the lentils are cooking—about 25 minutes. The sauce includes traditional bolognese vegetables: carrots, celery, onions, and garlic simmered in crushed tomatoes. Toss in mushrooms for extra texture and flavor.
• Add the cooked lentils to the sauce and simmer to let the flavors meld—about 10 minutes.

Best Lentils for Lentil Bolognese

Green lentils are the best choice for lentil bolognese because they stay firm when cooked, giving this vegetarian bolognese sauce the right bite. Brown lentils also hold their shape well in a bolognese sauce.

If you use red lentils, then the texture will be mushier. Red lentils are more suitable for recipes like Red Lentil Curry or Indian Dal.

Photo: Green lentils before cooking.

Cooking the Green Lentils

This lentil bolognese recipe uses 1½ cups of green lentils (300 g) and four cups of liquid (946 ml).

I used two cups of water and two cups of vegetable broth to cook the lentils. Alternatively, you can make a quick vegetable broth using a bouillon cube and water.

Another choice is to cook the lentils with water and salt only. Add ½-tsp. of salt per three cups of water, so for this recipe, use just a pinch more than ½-tsp. of salt to season the four cups of water.

Procedure:

1. Rinse lentils in a large saucepan to remove any floating particles or discolored lentils, then pour off the water.
2. Add the fresh liquid and bring lentils to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low or medium-low.
3. Simmer on low heat for 25–30 minutes until the lentils are tender and the liquid is mostly absorbed.
4. Remove lentils from heat and stir in 1½ tsp. of balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking the Bolognese Sauce

Photo: Traditional vegetables used for making lentil bolognese.

1. Chop the onions, celery, carrots, and mushrooms finely and dice the garlic.
2. In a large frying pan, sauté vegetables on medium-high heat using two teaspoons of cooking oil. Start by cooking the onions for two minutes, then add the carrots, celery, garlic, and mushrooms.
3. Add spoonfuls of vegetable broth to the vegetables while they cook to keep them from scorching.
4. After 10 minutes of cooking, add all the dried herbs to the vegetables. Continue cooking for two minutes.
5. Add the crushed tomatoes, soy sauce, bay leaves, and 1½ cups of vegetable broth.
6. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Combine Cooked Lentils and Sauce

1. Dump the cooked lentils into the pan with the sauce.
2. Cook for 10 more minutes to let the flavors meld. If the sauce gets too thick, thin it with a little more vegetable broth.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Photos below: Bolognese sauce before and after adding the cooked lentils to it.

Enjoy Lentil Bolognese at Home

If serving at home without dehydrating, spoon the lentil bolognese sauce over noodles or a sturdy pasta like fettuccine. Top with grated parmesan cheese.

Store leftover lentil bolognese in the fridge for up to a week or freeze it. To enjoy this hearty vegetarian bolognese on the trail, which I highly recommend, move on to the dehydration step.

Dehydrating Lentil Bolognese

This lentil bolognese recipe produces between six and seven cups of sauce before dehydrating. I ate one cup of it for lunch and dehydrated the remaining six cups to use in backpacking meals.

Procedure:

After the sauce cools, spread it thinly on dehydrator trays covered with nonstick sheets.

Two cups of sauce is a good quantity to dry on each Excalibur tray or 1½ cups is good to dry on each tray if using a Cosori dehydrator.

I used three Excalibur dehydrator trays to dry a total of six cups of lentil bolognese.

Photo: Lentil bolognese spread thinly on Excalibur dehydrator tray.

Dehydrate lentil bolognese at 145°F (63°C) for approximately eight hours until no moisture remains in any of the sauce components. The dried sauce will be crumbly, but pieces of carrots or tomatoes will still be slightly pliable.

To promote even drying, stir and redistribute the lentil bolognese on the trays halfway through the drying process.

Yield: 5–6 Servings

If you dehydrate six cups of this lentil bolognese (1500 g), the dried yield will be approximately four cups (340 g).

That’s enough to make 5–6 backpacking meals when combined with dried pasta.

Storage

Store dehydrated lentil bolognese at home in an airtight container such as a mason jar. Enclose an oxygen absorber or vacuum-seal the jar with a vacuum-sealing accessory.

Will keep well for up to one year if stored in an airtight container.

Lentil Bolognese & Fettuccine

Photo: Lentil Bolognese & Fettuccine after rehydration.

Lentil bolognese pairs well with fettuccine. It's thick texture provides the right bite for the meal.

Explore More...

How to Dehydrate Fettuccine

To make this hearty vegetarian backpacking meal on the trail, just rehydrate the dehydrated lentil bolognese and dehydrated fettuccine with boiled water. I prepare it two ways—in a pot and in a Thermos food jar.

Rehydrating Lentil Bolognese in a Pot

Servings: 1 large

Ingredients:

55 g dried lentil bolognese (⅔ cup)

75 g dried fettuccine noodles

1¾ cup water to rehydrate

On the Trail:

Add water to ingredients in pot and soak for five minutes. Turn on stove and bring meal to a boil for one minute. Transfer pot to an insulating pot cozy for 15–20 minutes.

Mylar Bag Cooking Option:

Add boiled water to ingredients in bag. Place bag in insulating pouch cozy and wait 20 minutes.

Rehydrating Lentil Bolognese in a Thermos

Dominique and I often share an extra-large serving of a meal that we rehydrate in a Thermos food jar. We add the ingredients and boiled water to the thermos in the morning and enjoy the rehydrated meal for lunch.

Thermos Cooking:

Add boiled water to the ingredients in the thermos. Wait 25 minutes up to four hours to enjoy the meal.

Explore More: Cooking Dehydrated Meals in Thermos Food Jar.

How Does it Taste?

While vegetarian lentil bolognese is not as “meaty” as the meat-eaters version made with ground beef and pork, the lentils provide a firm, hearty texture with flavors that are earthy, mildly peppery, and slightly nutty.

Simmered with the other vegetables and seasonings, this backpacking meal is rich in taste with plenty to chew on when combined with firm fettuccine noodles.

Share this page with friends on social media.

Free E-book & Newsletter

Free with Trail Bytes subscription.