Easy slow cooker spaghetti bolognese
Try this family-style bolognese sauce in your slow cooker – it makes four very generous servings or easily stretches to six when served with lots of spaghetti. It keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days and freezes brilliantly for up to four months.
Ingredients
- 500g/1lb 2oz beef mince
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 200g/7oz mushrooms, any kind, sliced
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 275ml/9½fl oz hot beef stock, made with 1 beef stock cube
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 dried bay leaves, or 1 fresh
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- freshly cooked spaghetti, grated cheese and basil, to serve
Method
Put the mince and onion in a large non-stick frying pan and fry together over a medium–high heat for about 4 minutes, stirring and squishing against the side of the pan with a couple of wooden spoons to break up the mince as much as possible.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
Tip the mince and onions into the slow cooker and add the mushrooms, tomatoes, stock, tomato purée and herbs. Season with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.
Cover the slow cooker with its lid and cook on high for 4–5 hours or low for 6–8 hours.
When ready, serve the Bolognese sauce with freshly cooked spaghetti, some grated cheese and basil, if you like.
Recipe Tips
You can use any mushrooms you like for this Bolognese, but small chestnut mushrooms work particularly well. Slice your mushrooms (not too thinly), or quarter them if they’re small.
You can use 1 tsp garlic granules or powder instead of fresh garlic in this recipe, if you like. If using a value can of tomatoes, add 1 tsp of sugar to the pot to balance the flavour.
If you have any leftover red wine knocking about, use 100ml/3½fl oz and reduce the stock by the same amount, so the total liquid quantities stay the same.
In November 2023, this recipe was costed at an average of £7.31 when checking prices at three UK supermarkets. It is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard.