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A bolognese of lean ground beef stretched with red lentils, cooked slowly until the lentils melt into the sauce. It makes six portions; cook the spaghetti fresh for whichever ones you are eating and freeze the rest of the sauce.
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains celery, gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
Warm the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat and brown the beef for 8 to 10 minutes, breaking it up, until the liquid has cooked away and it starts to catch on the base.
Push it to one side, add the finely diced onion, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the crushed garlic, oregano and tomato purée for 1 minute.
Scrape everything into the slow cooker with the tinned tomatoes, the red lentils, rinsed until the water runs clear, and the stock. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or HIGH for 3 to 4 hours, until the lentils have collapsed into the sauce and it reaches 71°C in the centre. On the hob, simmer it covered for 45 minutes, stirring often.
Cooked when: 71°C / 160°F in the centre, with no pink left. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Cook 60 g of spaghetti a portion, only for the portions you are eating, in well-salted boiling water for 1 minute less than the packet says. Toss it with the sauce and finish each plate with 5 g of grated Parmesan.
For the rest of the sauce, divide it between containers, leave them uncovered until the steam stops, no more than an hour, then cover and refrigerate or freeze. Cook the spaghetti fresh on the day.
The lentils go in dry and absorb about three times their weight in liquid, which is why there is more stock than a bolognese usually needs. They thicken the sauce as they collapse, so it needs no reducing at the end.
One serving is A sixth of the sauce over 60 g (dry weight) of spaghetti, with 5 g of Parmesan. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Turkey mince instead of beef
Lighter and milder. It must reach 74°C rather than 71°C.
Per serving: about the same energy, about 2 g less protein, about 1 g more fat.
Wholemeal or any dry pasta instead of spaghetti
Shapes such as penne hold the sauce better in a lunch box.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Leave out the Parmesan
Less savoury; nothing else changes.
Allergens: Removes milk.
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A bolognese where the red lentils sit alongside the beef rather than replacing it, which keeps over 30 g of protein a plate and adds fibre a meat-only sauce does not have.
| Energy | 515 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 35 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| of which saturates | 4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 70 g |
| of which sugars | not calculated |
| Fibre | 8 g |
| Sodium | 410 mg |
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 6. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| lean beef mince | 500 g | FDC 173110Beef, ground, 93% lean meat / 7% fat, raw | 760 kcal | 104.3 g |
| onion | 150 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 60 kcal | 1.7 g |
| carrot | 150 g | FDC 170393Carrots, raw | 62 kcal | 1.4 g |
| celery | 100 g | FDC 169988Celery, raw | 14 kcal | 0.7 g |
| garlic | 15 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 22 kcal | 1.0 g |
| dried oregano | 1 g | FDC 171328Spices, oregano, dried | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| tomato purée | 30 g | FDC 170459Tomato products, canned, paste, without salt added (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program) | 25 kcal | 1.3 g |
| chopped tomatoes | 800 g | FDC 170051Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 128 kcal | 6.3 g |
| red lentils | 120 g | FDC 174284Lentils, pink or red, raw | 430 kcal | 28.7 g |
| beef stock | 305 g | FDC 172883Soup, stock, beef, home-preparedCalculated with FoodData Central's home-prepared beef stock. Bought stock and stock cubes carry more salt. | 40 kcal | 6.0 g |
| spaghetti | 360 g | FDC 169736Pasta, dry, enrichedFoodData Central records dry pasta as one entry rather than by shape. | 1336 kcal | 46.9 g |
| Parmesan | 30 g | FDC 170848Cheese, parmesan, hard | 118 kcal | 10.7 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 6 | 3076 kcal | 209.0 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. of which sugars could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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