Dinner: Bolognese sauce with hidden veggies

Bolognese suace - a family favourite loaded with hidden veggies. This sauce is the essential ingredient in a variety of dishes from vegetable lasagna to chilli con carne.
- Prep time: 20 minutes
- Cook time: 2 hr
- Serves: 12
- Calories per serving: 331
- Carbohydrate Sugars: 5.8g
Ingredients
- 2 onions
- 1.5kg ground beef
- optional: 8 rashers smoked streaky bacon, cut into small pieces
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 3 celery sticks, chopeed
- 2 large courgettes, grated
- 2 tins plum tomatoes (400g each)
- 250ml good quality beef stock
- 150ml dry white wine
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp thyme
- 1 tbsp basil
- handful of chopped fresh parsley
- olive oil, for fying
- pepper and salt, to taste
- Fry the onions and garlic on a low heat until soft. Set aside.
- Brown the mince in batches from all sides, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go along. You'll need to do this in batches.
- If using streaky bacon, fry until crispy.
- Combine the meat, onions and garlic, tinned tomatoes, wine and beef stock in a big pot. Add the carrots, courgettes, and celery and season with thyme and basil.
- Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 1 hour.
- Should the sauce become too thick, add more beef stock.
Notes: The above recipe is calculated on the basis of 12 servings. If you use the sauce as a base to another meal, you'd have to adjust the nutritional info.
Dessert: Strawberry mascarpone tart

- Carbohydrate sugars: 1.4g
Ingredients:
For the coconut base:
- 120g (1/2 cup) good quality coconut oil
- 100g (3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) coconut flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- optional: 1 tsp sweetener (such as powdered erythritol, available from health food shops) or 4 drops of liquid stevia, widely available (equivalent to 1 tsp of sugar)
For the mascarpone cream:
- 250g (1 very generous cup) mascarpone
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp sweetener of choice (I use the brand Sukrin)
- 200g (1 cup) strawberries
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius/360 Fahrenheit.
- Blend your eggs with the coconut oil, vanilla and sweetener, if using.
- Sift in the coconut flour and combine.
- Your dough should be soft, but not too sticky. If needed, add a little more coconut flour to get the right consistency. You can also stick the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool it down - this will also make it easier to roll out.
- You now have 2 options: either roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper, or press it directly into a pie form that you have greased well with coconut oil.
- Bake for around 10 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges.
- Now make your filling: separate the eggs and beat the egg whites in a clean, dry, porcelain or metal bowl with a hand-held or electric metal whisk without stopping until stiff peaks form.
- Combine the mascarpone and the egg yolks, then add the vanilla and sweeterner.
- Gently fold in the stiff egg whites.
- Once the tart base has cooled down, add the mascarpone mix.
- Cool in the fridge until serving (at least 1/2 hour).
- Just before serving, add the strawberries - sliced, halved or whole, however you prefer.
- Optional: decorate with mint leaves.