Plant-based Bolognese with Fennel Seeds

You'll need: 2 tablespoons coconut oil or avocado oil · 1 large onion, finely diced · 2 medium carrots, finely chopped · 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped

Get your dutch pot or large heavy-based pan over a medium heat and add the oil. Once it is melted and shimmering, drop in the diced onion and stir to coat everything. Let it cook for seven to eight minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until it is genuinely soft and starting to go translucent. Then add the carrots and celery and keep going for another four minutes. You want everything properly soft and fragrant before the next gate. Do not rush this. The sweetness that comes from properly cooked aromatics is the foundation of everything that follows.

You'll need: 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped · 2 teaspoons fennel seeds · 1 teaspoon smoked paprika · 1 teaspoon dried oregano · 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Add the garlic straight into the pot and stir it through for about sixty seconds until it is fragrant. Now add the fennel seeds. This is the moment that makes this bolognese what it is, so do not skip past it. Let those seeds sit in the oil and heat for a full minute, moving them gently. You will hear them start to crackle slightly and the smell will shift from raw to warm and aniseed-sweet. That is the oils releasing and that is exactly what you want. Follow with the smoked paprika and dried oregano, stir everything together, and let it toast for another thirty to forty-five seconds. Then add the tomato paste and stir it through until it coats everything and starts to darken slightly, another minute. This gate is non-negotiable. Spices that go straight into liquid and never hit proper heat taste flat and jarring compared to what this gives you.

You'll need: 250g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped · 1 x 400g tin green lentils, drained and rinsed · salt and black pepper

Add the chopped chestnut mushrooms first and stir them through. They will release their moisture over the next three to four minutes, which is fine. Let them cook down and shrink properly until that liquid has cooked off and they start to look a little golden at the edges. Now tip in the drained and rinsed green lentils and fold everything together. The lentils are the real body here, they give this bolognese that soft, satisfying texture that carries all the flavour you have built. Season with a generous pinch of salt and a few cracks of black pepper at this point. Make sure the lentils and mushrooms are evenly distributed through the base before moving to the next gate.

You'll need: 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes · 200ml passata · 300ml good vegetable stock · 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

Pour in the chopped tomatoes, passata, and vegetable stock. Stir in the dark soy sauce as well. This is the umami anchor, it deepens and rounds everything without tasting like soy. Stir the whole pot properly so everything is evenly combined. Bring it up to a gentle boil, then drop the heat right down to a low simmer and put the lid on slightly ajar. Let it go for thirty-five to forty minutes, stirring every ten minutes or so. You want it to reduce and thicken into something that coats the back of a spoon properly. If it starts to catch at the bottom, add a small splash more stock or water. Taste after twenty minutes and adjust salt if needed. The sauce should be rich, deep, and properly thick before Gate 05.

You'll need: 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, finely grated · juice of half a lemon · generous handful of fresh basil leaves · nutritional yeast to serve (optional) · pasta of your choice, cooked to packet instructions

Take the pot off the heat. Grate in the fresh ginger right now while the heat has dropped. Added at this point it lifts everything rather than cooking away into the background. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and stir through a generous handful of fresh basil leaves, tearing them rather than chopping if you can. Taste one more time and decide if it needs a little more lemon, a pinch more salt, or a few drops more soy sauce. Serve over your cooked pasta. A wider pasta like pappardelle or a well-cooked rigatoni works particularly well with this sauce. Top with nutritional yeast if you want a parmesan-style finish. Bare flavour right there. Not gonna lie, that's peak.