Chickpea Ragu | Vegan & Gluten Free
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Questa ricetta è disponibile anche in italiano
This slow-simmered chickpea ragu is something that is truly reminiscent of traditional Italian food – bold, strong, and utterly delicious, we can’t get enough!
Vegan, healthy, hearty and wholesome, this fantastic plant alternative to the scrumptious Italian ragù (o bolognese) is 100% gluten free, soy free, as well as packed with proteins & fibers. A must try recipe for those that follow a Whole Food Plant Based Diet (WFPB).
The long-simmering process is what makes this recipe great. By cooking like that, you’re giving the flavors plenty of time to intermingle and create a deliciously rich flavor combination. Make sure to give the sauce plenty of time on the stovetop!
If you’re a fan of ragù, make sure to also take a look at this recipe for Vegetable Ragù, made entirely with veggies!
How To Make a Chickpea Ragu
First of all, get your food processor out and make sure that it’s clean and ready to go. When it’s all set up, roughly chop onion, celery, garlic, and carrot. Add them to the processor, and pulse it until your vegetable is well minced. Then, set the mixture aside.
Without washing the blender (you’d be washing away wonderful flavors!), add the chickpeas and pulse until you reach a texture that is more or less coarse, according to your personal taste. Make sure that you discard the liquid from your chickpeas, as you’re relying on the blending process to work without any additional liquid.
The blended chickpeas will serve as a vegan mince for the ragu. We love this step, it’s something that you don’t see much but, honestly, it works so well!
Next, it’s time to turn the heat up! Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, and add in the rosemary and bay leaves. Allow them to heat for twenty to thirty seconds, as this will release to amazing aromatics into the dish. Add in the soffritto vegetables that you minced with the food processor, along with a pinch of salt, and sauté for three to five minutes. Essentially, you want to sauté until the onions are soft.
If you’d like, you can reduce the amount of oil, and use vegetable broth in place of oil that you would’ve used. If you’d like the recipe to be oil-free and completely WFPB, then you can just use broth, and not use any oil whatsoever.
Next, add in your minced chickpeas, and give the entire mixture a thorough stir, making sure to heat it for a minute or two. Having the entire mixture be consistent in its temperature will help out the entire cooking process enormously.
Now, add the red wine to the mixture, and cook everything until the alcohol has been removed from the mixture. You should be able to smell the difference when the alcohol has completely boiled off.
Once the alcohol has evaporated, add in the tomato passata, season the mixture with salt and pepper, lower the heat, and simmer everything for thirty to forty-five minutes. If the sauce starts to dry out a little too much, you can add up to half a cup of water or stock.
Pro tip:
You can cook this chickpea ragu in the Instant Pot. All you’ll need to do is to use the sauté mode until you stir in the passata sauce and then switch to pressure cook for 15-20 minutes. You can either release the pressure naturally or by turning the valve 5 minutes after the finishing beep.
Finally, serve the ragout with your favourite shape of pasta – we’ve got a soft spot for rigatoni!
Alternatively, you could add it into a lasagna or vegetable bake, or even enjoy it as it is with some toasted sourdough bread and a gentle drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Chickpea Ragù | Vegan & Gluten Free – Recipe
Ingredients:
250 g Chickpeas (cooked)
500 g Tomato Passata
50 g Red Wine
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Garlic Cloves (grated)
1 Onion
1 Celery Stalk
1 Carrot
1 Rosemary Sprig
2 Bay Leaves
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
Salt
Pepper
Method:
1. Place in a food processor roughly chopped: onion, celery, garlic and carrot. Pulse until the veggies are well minced. Set aside.
2. Without washing it, place in the same blender bowl the chickpeas (well drained from any liquid) and pulse until you reach a texture more or less coarse, according to your own taste. This will be our vegan mince for the ragù.
3. Heat the oil the rosemary and the bay leaves on medium heat for 20-30 seconds. Add the “soffritto” veggies (celery, carrot, onion and garlic) with a pinch of salt and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft. If you want you can use less oil and add some vegetable broth instead or no oil at all and replace it with vegetable broth for a WFPB and oil free version.
4. Add the minced chickpeas, give the mixture a thorough stir and heat for a minute or two.
5. At this point pour the red wine and cook out the alcohol for another couple of minutes.
6. Once the alcohol has evaporated, it’s time to add the tomato passata, season with salt and pepper, lower down the heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Note: if the sauce dries out, add up to ½ cup of water or vegetable broth to taste.
7. Serve the ragù with your favourite pasta shape, add it into a lasagna or vegetable bake, or enjoy as it is with a couple of toasted sourdough bread and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top.
