The protein cooking time listed in this recipe has been updated.
As of December 2025, we’ve revised cooking times for all our proteins to reflect improved food safety guidance.
Check out the latest recommended times in our Cooking Guidelines.
Hidden-veg Beef Bolognese with Wholewheat Penne & Cheddar Cheese
Sneak in the extra veg without a word. This crowd-pleasing Bolognese is loaded with lentils, carrots and tomatoes alongside the beef – comforting, familiar and genuinely good for them. Serve the carrots as crudités on the side for little foodies who prefer things separate. Clean plates guaranteed!
High protein
1/3 daily fibre
5 plants
Family-friendly
Serving size
Ingredients
- 20g extra mature cheddar cheese (Milk) (pasteurised cow's milk, salt, microbial rennet, starter culture)
- 80g red split lentils (Red Split Lentil 99%, Vegetable Oil 1%)
- 200g wholewheat pasta (Wheat) (Whole Durum Wheat Flour (100%))
- 10g beef stock powder (Yeast Extract, Chicory Extract, Natural Flavouring, Salt, Onion Powder, Beef Stock Powder, Rapeseed Oil, Tomato Powder.)
- 400g passata (tomatoes, salt, citric acid)
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (Sulphites) (wine vinegar (75%), concentrated grape must (25%))
- 2 tbsp garlic, basil and parsley paste (garlic puree, basil, rapeseed oil, parsley, sea salt, acidity regulator: citric acid)
- 2 carrot
- 110g baby tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 500g beef mince (british beef mince (10% fat))
Nutritional Information
Calories: 651
Protein: 44g
Carbs: 75g
Fat: 18g
Hidden-veg Beef Bolognese with Wholewheat Penne & Cheddar Cheese
Sneak in the extra veg without a word. This crowd-pleasing Bolognese is loaded with lentils, carrots and tomatoes alongside the beef – comforting, familiar and genuinely good for them. Serve the carrots as crudités on the side for little foodies who prefer things separate. Clean plates guaranteed!
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Cooking Instructions
Before you start
- Pull out a large lidded frying pan, a large saucepan, a measuring jug, a sieve & a grater
Fry & prep
- Heat the large frying pan with 1/2 tsp oil on medium-high heat. Once hot, add the beef and season with salt and pepper
- Cook for 4 mins, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until golden brown
- Meanwhile, finely dice the onion. Halve the tomatoes. Coarsely grate or finely dice the carrots (peel optional) (make it kid friendly: leave the tomatoes and carrots out of the sauce and serve as crunchy crudités on the side)
Get sizzlin'
- Add the onion and carrot to the beef pan and cook for 3 mins
- Stir in the garlic herb paste, fresh tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and cook for 1 min
- Add the passata, stock powder, lentils and 400ml water. Bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and simmer for 22-25 mins, until the lentils are cooked through. Add a splash of water if it becomes too dry
Cook the pasta
- When the lentils have 10 mins remaining, bring the large saucepan filled with salted water to the boil. Once boiling, add one and a half packs of penne and cook for 9-10 mins, until cooked, then drain
- Grate the cheese
Plate up
- Stir the cooked penne through the bolognese. Season to taste with salt and pepper
- Serve the penne bolognese into bowls, sprinkled with the grated cheese to finish
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