I’ve made a lot of Bolognese sauces in my day. We used to eat it almost every week when the kids were smaller. Pasta Bolognese and a salad and that was a nice Sunday night meal. I’ve made quick Bolognese sauces and I’ve made the kind that takes hours and hours to cook. I’ve made it with ground turkey and I’ve made a vegan version. So, I think I know my Bolognese sauce pretty well.
Trader Joe’s Vegan Pasta Bolognese frozen
When I saw this in the freezer section at Trader Joe’s, I grabbed it immediately. I don’t really care if it’s vegan or not, it has to taste good and fill me up. That’s all I really care about.
I’ll just say that this is a really good dish right off the bat. But back to the basics first. Bolognese sauce is a tomato and meat sauce that is very rich and full of deep flavors. It is usually achieved by cooking the ground meats and tomatoes with a fair amount of garlic, herbs, and sometimes mushrooms. Typically it’s served over a bowl of pasta, mostly spaghetti. Americans tend to overdo it with the sauce and when I was in Italy I ate it a few times and you would be surprised how little sauce they put on their pasta dishes.
Anyway, this is a vegan version of Bolognese sauce, which isn’t that hard to make. Usually, these vegan versions just have tomatoes and mushrooms and the mushrooms give it that rich meaty flavor that you are probably used to.
But this is where Trader Joe’s went a little off the beaten track. For protein, they used something called “Textured Wheat Protein” which is a common meat substitute but the funny thing is they went with Red Lentil pasta!
You might ask, what is wrong with that? Nothing actually, this dish tastes great. The problem is that they could’ve gone full monty vegan AND gluten-free if they had picked another protein to put in the sauce since they used Red Lentils for their pasta. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher but it is what it is.
Trader Joe’s Vegan Bolognese
I have to say the results are wonderful. Even though I am not a vegan, I could eat this every day for lunch. I didn’t miss the meat one single bit. The sauce was rich and “meaty” and the pasta was just the right amount of doneness. The pasta was not soggy or wet and had a little bit of bite to it, just as you would expect. You could literally take this out of the bowl and microwave several of them together and serve this to friends at a dinner party and they would love it. The only thing I miss would be some crusty bread, parmesan cheese (do they even make vegan parmesan cheese?), and maybe a sprinkling of fresh basil if you have it.
I really like this and will definitely be buying this again. At $3.49 a box, it’s a steal. I am going to rate this 9 Bells!
Nutritional yeast (which TJ sells) is a good sprinkly cheese substitute.
I’ll try that next time!
I cooked it according to directions. Pasta was chewy like old licorice. I couldn’t I.D. the mushrooms by look or flavor. The sauce tasted halfway between so-so and awful. I ate half of it before throwing it out, hoping it would grow on me. This was a RARE experience for me.
I was really looking forward to this easy meal, and hoped it would become a staple. Unfortunately, I ditto Michele’s comment. My husband and I both ate two bites and tossed it. Yuck! It simply had a weird taste (maybe the lentil pasta?). In 5 minutes, we sauteed up some Morningstar Farms Sausage, added Barillla’s ready Rotini and some Prego. Top with FHY Vegan Parm, and ours was SO much better (and cheaper!).
I thought this tasted great. It was a really hearty dish and quick to prepare. I hate mushy pasta, so I thought it had the perfect amount of chew. I’d much rather eat this than some horrible jarred sauce.
Try Nooch It! The best tasting plant based Parmesan that I have tasted.
Nutritional yeast (which TJ sells) is a good sprinkly cheese substitute.
I’ll try that next time!
I cooked it according to directions. Pasta was chewy like old licorice. I couldn’t I.D. the mushrooms by look or flavor. The sauce tasted halfway between so-so and awful. I ate half of it before throwing it out, hoping it would grow on me. This was a RARE experience for me.
I was really looking forward to this easy meal, and hoped it would become a staple. Unfortunately, I ditto Michele’s comment. My husband and I both ate two bites and tossed it. Yuck! It simply had a weird taste (maybe the lentil pasta?). In 5 minutes, we sauteed up some Morningstar Farms Sausage, added Barillla’s ready Rotini and some Prego. Top with FHY Vegan Parm, and ours was SO much better (and cheaper!).
I thought this tasted great. It was a really hearty dish and quick to prepare. I hate mushy pasta, so I thought it had the perfect amount of chew. I’d much rather eat this than some horrible jarred sauce.
Try Nooch It! The best tasting plant based Parmesan that I have tasted.