Ree Drummond takes a classic Bolognese pasta and alternates it with cauliflower for a meat-free option. The Pioneer Woman star’s bolognese sauce is packed with substance and texture and is perfect for vegetable lovers.
Ree Drummond replaces cauliflower with meat in her Bolognese recipe
The introduction to the recipe explains how Bolognese sauce can still have a big impact, even if meat is replaced with cauliflower. “In this recipe, cauliflower replaces meat to create a delicious vegetarian alternative to traditional Bolognese,” reads the intro.
Drummond demonstrated how to make the recipe on an episode of The Pioneer Woman dedicated to “putting a super easy twist on pasta classics.”
She explained, “Today I’m going to be making four absolutely incredible pasta recipes to celebrate all things noodle-related. Noodles are my favorite.”
For her Bolognese recipe, she found an easy way to make it vegetarian. “When it comes to meat sauces for pasta, it’s hard to beat a great classic Bolognese,” she noted. “Well, I’m going to make Bolognese, but not necessarily a classic one. I’m going to make cauliflower Bolognese, replacing cauliflower with the meat.”
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How to make Ree Drummond’s Easy Cauliflower Bolognese Recipe?
The recipe comes together quickly and is ready in just 30 minutes, making it perfect for a weeknight dinner.
Drumond melted butter in a pan and added finely chopped red onions, garlic, chopped rosemary leaves and red chili flakes. While the ingredients were cooking, she added the pasta to boiling water to time it perfectly. “When the sauce is ready, so is the pasta,” she said. “I love it when a plan like this comes together.”
Drummond cooked linguine for the recipe, but noted that other forms of pasta will work as well.
The Food Network star added salt, pepper and tomato paste to the sauce and stirred to cook the tomato paste. She added cauliflower to the pot and continued to cook and stir until the cauliflower was tender, about 6 to 7 minutes.
“It kind of looks like meat sauce, doesn’t it?” she wondered. Drummond added the cooked and drained linguine, pecorino romano cheese, butter, red pepper flakes and cream to the sauce. “Adding milk or cream to Bolognese is pretty standard, so just a little bit,” she noted.
The Pioneer Woman star took the pasta off the heat, stirred everything to combine the ingredients well, and added more grated cheese and basil before serving.
The full recipe is on the food network website.
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‘The Pioneer Woman’ star also makes a traditional Bolognese
Drummond wrote about her traditional Bolognese meat sauce recipe in a 2009 blog post at: The Pioneer Woman website.
Drummond adds grated carrots and diced onions to a large skillet with oil over medium heat. Then she adds the ground beef, browns it and stirs it into the carrots and onions. She adds oregano and basil, tomato paste, garlic, red wine Worcestershire sauce, and whole canned tomatoes.
She adds milk to the pot, stirs everything well and simmers the sauce for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
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