Vegan Spag Bol
This is perfect when you need ballast, comfort and cheer. It’s certainly not light, and you may of course use less sauce per pasta (and indeed less pasta, too) than I advise, but I have very much modelled it, as its title indicates, on that traditional British delight, spag bol, which is always much more heavily sauced than any Italian would condone. I do want to say that this is no second-best meat substitute, but a gorgeously rich sauce in its own right: the aubergine/eggplant melts into the lentils, and the dried mushrooms — predominantly the soaking liquid — bring an intense umami depth. Should you not have any dried mushrooms to hand, you could by all means stir some marmite or vegemite into the 250ml/1 cup freshly boiled water until it dissolves, and add this along with the tins of tomatoes, but if you can get the dried mushrooms, they bring a magic of their own, which I would be unwilling to do without. And please bear in mind that this thick, meaty lentil sauce also makes, when topped with mashed potato, a glorious vegan-friendly shepherd’s pie. And should you wish to eat it as a stew with rice, then I suggest you add another tin of chopped tomatoes when you cook it. This makes 2 litres/8 cups sauce and you will need 1-1½ cups (or enough to come up to 250-375ml in a measuring jug) for 100-125g/4oz spaghetti per person; therefore this amount is enough to feed 4-8 people, using 500g to 750g/1lb to 1½ lbs spaghetti. I know this makes a lot, and many of us are eating in small groups or singly right now, but since you do need to cook everything for a good long time, and would still have to even if you halved the recipe, it makes sense to me to cook up a big batch and freeze portions to make your life easier later.
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