Healthy Spaghetti Bolognese

I love spaghetti bolognese! It is a family favourite and my version is full of vegetables. I also love dishes that are a one pot, or almost a one pot meal. I would rather load a mixed dish up with vegetables than have a side of salad or vegetables. It just tastes great that way.

Some things that make this dish more healthy include the low fat beef mince, loaded veggies, and using low salt products like your tomato paste and tinned tomatoes. Mind you, sometimes I add in a bit of salt, but if you really need to watch your salt intake, which a lot of people do, just leave it out and add in a bit of white pepper. The flavour will still be amazing.

One thing I have noticed with spaghetti bolognese, over the years, is how many different variants there are of it. Everyone seems to have their family favourite and if you try someone else's family dish, it just doesn't cut it. Well that has been my experience anyway. Maybe that is because this version is so delicious. Just saying...

Another thing I have noticed with a lot of recipes you find, is that a lot of oil is added to the dish. I don't have a problem with oil, especially extra virgin olive oil (EVVO). It is really important for good health to have some oils in your diet. My problem with oil is the quantity added just isn't often necessary. So you will find in this recipe, I only use a small amount of EVOO to help cook the onion and garlic. Keeping the oil quantity low will help reduce the overall kilojoule (Calorie) content of the dish. I definitely recommend trying to cut down on the oil content in most recipes you will find online.

Swapping mince to the extra lean version is also a great way to reduce the saturated fat content of this dish. It is a bit more expensive, but worth it for your health. It is important to reduce the amount of saturated fats in our diet to reduce the risk of heart disease and high cholesterol. So every reduction counts.

Another way to reduce the saturated fat content in this dish is to add in some lentils. Doing this will also increase the fibre content and still make a delicious meal. I haven't tried reducing the meat and adding more lentils to bulk it up, but this is potentially another way to reduce the saturated fats. I have added a cup of lentils to see how it affects the flavour, and it is still great.

Buon appetito!

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