This spaghetti sauce recipe wasn’t too far off from the recipe that my family already uses regularly. I gave it a try and found it tasted like my childhood. We never use dried parsley in our cooking and I didn’t find it added anything here. It also didn’t take anything away, so I’ve listed it as optional. My family (besides me) are not mushroom fans so we substituted for zucchini. Next time we’ll add fresh basil.

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 lb vegan ground beef substitute
• 1 cup zucchini, finely chopped (or mushrooms if you prefer)
• ½-1 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 jar tomato puree (or stained tomatoes (796 ml)
• 1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
• 2 tsp parsley flakes (optional)
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp basil leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp Braggs amino acids
• 1 tbsp vegan no-beef stock powder (I use Luda’s brand)
• 1 cup water, or as needed
• Hot cooked spaghetti
• Nutritional yeast, to taste

Yield: 6-8 servings

Spray skillet with cooking spray, heat over medium-high heat until hot. Saute onions and garlic for a few minutes before adding the veggie ground round. Saute another few minutes and then add the zucchini, green pepper and garlic.

Stir in tomato puree and tomato paste, blend well. Stir in parsley, Italian seasoning, basil, salt, sugar, pepper, Braggs, and stock powder. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed.  Serve over hot cooked spaghetti and sprinkle with nutritional yeast.