This Slow Cooker Bolognese recipe is so easy, with NO BROWNING browning necessary! Just leave it to cook all day and come home to a thick, rich beef ragu. Perfect to top spaghetti or use in lasagne.
Is there a more classic midweek dinner than Spag Bol?! 🍝
I’ve taken this family favourite dish and reinvented it to be cooked while you’re busy all day, totally hands off – no faffing. Meet my Slow Cooker Bolognese.
Yes, I mean it when I say we don’t have to fry off the mince to brown it beforehand, which means this is a true throw-it-all-in slow cooker recipe – AKA a trusty ‘dump bag’ dinner.
I love sharing my newly discovered slow cooker hacks with you, and this is the ULTIMATE time-saving method of making this much-loved dish.
I have made sure it’s packed with rich flavour and the long, slow cooking just enhances the depth of deliciousness. Did I mention how easy it is too?!
I hope you love it as much as we do. ❤️
Why you’ll love this Slow Cooker Bolognese recipe
⭐️ Soft and tender beef
⭐️ Rich and delicious sauce
⭐️ Perfect for batch cooking and freezing
How we came up with this recipe
It can sometimes be tricky to get the flavours right with slow cooker recipes, especially if we’re not browning the meat we’re using beforehand. And that’s even truer with beef.
And so I knew if we were going to get spaghetti bolognese made in a slow cooker, it would have to be perfectly fine-tuned. The adapted version would also have to be worth cooking it differently for.
I am DELIGHTED to say that, after lots of testing, this bolognese recipe ticks all of the boxes…
✅ It’s rich in flavour thanks to a few extra ingredients that you might normally leave out (red wine, Worcestershire sauce, extra quantities of herbs and tomatoes, for example).
✅ It’s also SO easy. Yes we really do just add all of the ingredients to the slow cooker, switch on and go. We don’t need to brown the mince at all. Which means preparing dinner takes just a few minutes, and the outcome is a rich, thick sauce that will go down with the whole family.
✅ It has a lovely consistency that is very ragu-like. If you give the mince a quick chop up before you add it into the pan, it won’t go into clumps at all.
✅ You can then serve with spaghetti (make this separately as you’re about to eat), or it can even be used as a base for a lasagne or on top of a jacket potato.
More slow cooker beef mince recipes
⭐️ Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne ⭐️
⭐️ Homemade Doner Kebab ⭐️
⭐️ Slow Cooker Beef Enchiladas ⭐️
Ingredients
- Beef mince – I like to use a 5% beef fat mince as it avoids excess fattiness in the sauce (as none will be cooking off). Any beef mince will work fine though
- Tinned tomatoes
- Onion, celery and carrots – I use frozen Soffrito mix (onions, celery and carrots chopped into small cubes). Or you can prepare from scratch (see notes)
- Garlic – Fresh or jarred/frozen is OK
- Tomato pureé
- Red wine
- Beef stock cubes
- Dried oregano
- Bay leaves – Fresh or dried is fine (remove before serving)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Worcestershire sauce
- Fresh basil
How to make Spaghetti Bolognese in a slow cooker
- Put all of the slow cook ingredients into the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH for 6 hours or LOW for 8 hours.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce and fresh basil before serving.
Hint: If you want to serve this with spaghetti, boil the spaghetti for 2-3 minutes less than the usual cooking time. Drain and add to the bolognese sauce, with a splash or two of reserved cooking water. Stir well and allow the pasta to absorb the sauce a little and soften.
Leftovers
In the fridge You can keep this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat fully by before serving.
In the freezer Yes, you can freeze any leftovers. Defrost and reheat thoroughly when you want to enjoy them.
Alternatively, you can freeze all of the ingredients together in a bag raw as a ‘dump’ meal and then cook.
Top tips
Prep the night before
You can save yourself even more time in the morning for this recipe and prepare the ingredients for your slow cooker THE EVENING BEFORE!
Simply throw everything for the initial cook into the slow cooker, pop the lid on, then store it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, put it into the slow cooker and don’t forget to switch ‘on’.
Hack: Frozen mixed vegetables base
You can replace the individual carrots, celery and onion ingredients for a frozen bag of ‘soffritto’, which comes already pre-chopped and all together in one bag. (I love this cheat for lots of recipes!) It might be called ‘vegetable base mix’ or something similar in some supermarkets.
FAQs
I use: Morphy Richards Sear & Stew Slow Cooker (it’s light and you can use it for browning on the hob too).
For induction hob users: Lakeland Digital 6.5l Slow Cooker.
Also! Top tip, buy a WiFi plug for it so you can switch it on or off from your phone when you’re out. What a time to be alive! I have this: Tp Link Tapo Smart Plug (Also you can set up with your Google or Alexa to say: “Switch on slow cooker” WHATTT? 🤯
This recipe is designed for the slow cooker, so I’d suggest you use my Easy Spaghetti Bolognese recipe here instead (there are also oven instructions with this one).
Yes you can! The reasons to brown mince before cooking in the slow cooker (or crock pot) is to add flavour, to avoid excess fat and to stop the meat clumping.
You can avoid needing to do that by: adding lots of extra flavour, using lean mince and chopping up the mince before adding.
All that said, if you do want to brown the mince, go for it, I’m just always looking for a time saving hack.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Slow Cooker Bolognese {No Browning Recipe!}
Ingredients
To Slow Cook:
- 500 g Beef mince
- 800 g Tinned tomatoes 2 x 400g cans
- 3 Sticks of celery Chopped finely
- 3 Carrots Peeled and chopped finely
- 1 Onion Peeled and chopped finely
- 6 Cloves of garlic Peeled and crushed
- 75 g Tomato pureé
- 125 ml Red wine
- 2 Beef stock cubes
- 2 tsp Dried oregano
- 3 Bay leaves
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
To Serve:
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 15 g Fresh basil Finely chopped
Instructions
- Put all of the slow cook ingredients into the slow cooker and cook for 6 hours on HIGH or 8 hours on LOW.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce and fresh basil.
Optional:
- If you want to serve with spaghetti, boil the spaghetti for 2-3 minutes less than the usual cooking time. Drain and add to the bolognese sauce, with a splash or two of reserved cooking water. Stir well and allow the pasta to absorb the sauce a little and soften.
Irene says
Delicious and so easy – only two of us so lots for the freezer. What’s not to like! Trying slow cooker chicken casserole tomorrow. 😊
Mia says
I didn’t have any red wine so had to just use beef stock. Think it really needs the wine, will def try again with wine next time.
Thank you for all that you do, I love your recipes
Hannah says
This the best bolognese recipe I have ever tried! Such a rich sauce and totally effortless. Thanks for another amazing recipe.
Debbie says
Absolutely delicious and no lumps of mince, which I hate. Makes loads! We had spaghetti with ours and still enough left for a lasagne. Great recipe.
GurkhaKitchen says
Thank you for a great recipe. It’s super nice and complete and helpful.
Amanda Smith says
I am working my through all your recipes and like all the others I have tried this was delicious and so so easy.
Jo says
Can I ask, if doing the dump bags do I add the tin toms, wine, stock or in fact any of the liquids before freezing?
Sarah Barnes says
The blog post about this is up now Jo!
Tess Clark says
A really great recipe, so easy that my six year old took the lead! Really helpful that no browning was required in advance. We’re going to try the Lamb Orzo recipe next.
Rebecca says
I consider my spag bol to be excellent but my daughter has just told me its even better than mine! I only tried this as my kitchen has been ripped out and had to invest in a slow cooker.
Will definitely be making dump bags (didn’t for this) it’s going to make life so much simpler 😍
Samantha Smith says
Oh my word. I popped the slow cooker on at 07:30, it went onto warm mode at 17:30. It’s a flipping delicious dish!! Thank you for a fabulous & oh so easy recipe xx
Scindy says
Best bolognese I’ve ever made. So easy. Used 3% fat mince so a little lower in cals too though I made up for this with cheese! Took me 4 mins to chop and Chuck in the slow cooker. I timed it!
Charlotte says
Just chucked all the ingredients in ready for tonight’s dinner! I grated carrots and celery to disguise a little. Can’t wait to taste!
Neil Corden says
Simply delicious!! Im new to slow cooking….cooking made sooo easily and this Bolognese is/was amazing!! Thank you for your time in sharing
Clare says
Hello we have been trying all your recipes – so delicious ! For this one .. I presume frozen onion etc are ok if you don’t have fresh? ( as per some your other recipes ) thanks again !
Claire says
Really lovely, thank you. I double the recipe but add 150g red lentils about half an hour before the end, instead of doubling up on the mince, so add 500ml water with the stock cubes from the start, to compensate for the fact the red lentils will soak in water. It makes it healthier and cheaper (and no-one can tell the difference!). I’ve used the frozen celery / onion / carrot mixes too which makes this recipe so quick to prepare, thank you 🙂
Rhiannon says
Absolutely love this bolognese recipe! So easy and loads of flavour!
Joanna McKeon says
First time making this. It was so simple to make and so good to have dinner ready as we walked in the door. Really tasty, my 9 year old went for seconds and requested we have it every week.