Paleo Bison Bolognese {GF}
I’ve been making this Paleo Bison Bolognese a lot lately. Bison has less fat than beef, so the whole meat sauce has a lighter feeling, while still being very rich, flavorful, and super satisfying. This extra “lightness” makes it the type of Italian sauce you could eat all year long, including in the summer heat!
Also, this sauce is incredibly versatile, so you can use it to make SO many delicious healthy meals. It also works wonders as leftovers. Paleo meat sauce for the win!
Prior to making this recipe, I had bought quite a bit of grass-fed bison and wasn’t sure what to make with it. I love bison because it is leaner than beef and both my husband and I find it to be easier to digest than beef.
My first thought when it comes to ground meats is always “meat sauce”. So I thought, what about a bison bolognese / meat sauce!?
Honestly, meat sauce is incredibly versatile and I love anything and everything that it is on. I could eat meat sauce literally once a week and probably do, now that I think about it.
You can eat meat sauce on zoodles, or spiralized potatoes. You can eat it on gluten-free pasta or even sloppy joe style on any type of bread of your choosing.
And leftover meat sauce is just as fabulous! You can put leftover meat sauce in your eggs in the morning. You can turn it into a chili by adding chili powder and veggies (or beans). You can even use it to make lasagna or a shepherd’s pie of sorts.
Oh and don’t forget making stuffed peppers with leftover meat sauce too. OMG sooo good.
So the more I thought about how delicious meat sauce is and all the things I could do with it, the more I became convinced that this was the plan.
And this is how this Paleo Bison Bolognese came to be.
I realized that I had never made an all bison bolognese on the blog before despite how much I love it!
So I decided to take notes on my favorite way to make it. 🙂
During the process I started to wonder what is the difference between bolognese and meat sauce? And apparently bolognese traditionally has white wine and cream in it? I may be wrong but I read about this on the world wide web. 🙂
To me, though, bolognese has always been synonymous with meat sauce and this seems to be the case with many other people… or so I found while searching online.
With that in mind this Paleo Bison Bolognese is made with ground bison that has been seasoned with onion, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, basil and oregano. And then it is cooked in strained and chopped tomatoes.
I added thyme and sage here, which were the perfect finishing touches. Perfection!
Paleo Bison Bolognese {GF}
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup minced onion ( this was from 1 onion for me)
- 2 Tbs minced garlic ( this was from 5 cloves of garlic for me)
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 2 1/4- 2 1/2 lbs ground bison
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 3 tsp dried basil , divided
- 1 cup minced carrot ( this was from 2 carrots for me)
- 5 Tbs tomato paste
- 3 1/2 cups Pomi strained tomatoes
- 2 1/2 cups Pomi chopped tomatoes
- 1/4 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp rubbed sage
Instructions
- Add the minced onion and minced garlic to a large pan with 1 Tbs of olive oil and mix. Cook over medium heat, while mixing every so often for 3 minutes.
- Add the ground bison to the pan, along with 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 2 tsp dried oregano, and 2 tsp dried basil. Mix and cook until the meat is browned, about 7 minutes.
- Next, add 1 cup of minced carrots to the pan, and mix into the meat. Cook for 2 minutes. Then add 5 TBs tomato paste to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to low-medium and then add 3 1/2 cups of strained tomatoes and 2 1/2 cups of chopped tomatoes to the pan and mix.
- Add 1 tsp basil, ¼ tsp thyme, and ¼ tsp of rubbed sage to the pan, mix and then let the mixture boil for about 20 minutes. ( Cook on either low or low medium heat, whichever one allows for a light boil to occur)
Nutrition
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3 Comments on “Paleo Bison Bolognese {GF}”
The hubby and I recently started crossfit and as a result have started to eat a more Paleo-ish diet. Loving this recipe especially considering spaghetti bolognese is one of his favorite meals. I’m not sure if I can convince him to go the zoodles route (it’s hard for him to resist the temptation of whole wheat noodles). . .but I definitely will go for zoodles or a little spaghetti squash action in lieu of noodles.
Zoodles for you, whole wheat pasta for him 🙂 Any bit of clean eating helps… Not going to lie, when I make this sauce, I eat it with zoodles one day, with pasta another. 🙂 🙂
Really good. And really good food to have as a leftover for about six different meal options. What restaurant have you had your favorite Bolognese?