What's Really In Our Ragu?

Five vegetables, seven herbs, a good hit of garlic and not a single thing you can't pronounce. That's what goes into a compostable container of our Beef Ragu, and I think most people have no idea.

When you think ragu you think beef and tomato, and fair enough, that's the heart of it. But underneath all that slow-cooked goodness there's onion and carrot and zucchini and mushroom, all organic, all cooked down so far into the sauce that you'd never pick them out. And they're not just there for flavour (although they do a lot of heavy lifting on that front). They're there because we want every spoonful to be doing something good for you.

So I thought I'd walk you through what's actually in there and why we bother.

The veggies in our Beef Ragu

Tomatoes. The backbone of the whole thing. Tomatoes are where you find lycopene, the antioxidant that gives them their red colour, and here's the nerdy bit I love: your body absorbs lycopene better when tomatoes are cooked, and better again when there's a bit of fat alongside them. So a slow-cooked tomato sauce with olive oil is about the best way you can eat a tomato. They also bring vitamin C and potassium.

Onion. Every good sauce starts with onion, and it turns out onions are quietly brilliant. They contain quercetin, a plant compound that's been studied a lot for its antioxidant properties, plus a type of fibre (prebiotic fibre) that feeds the good bacteria in your gut.

Mushrooms. This is the one people are most surprised by. Mushrooms give the sauce that deep, savoury, almost meaty richness, and they're also a natural source of B vitamins like riboflavin and niacin, along with selenium.

Carrots. Carrots are packed with beta-carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A (the one that helps keep your eyes, skin and immune system ticking along). Like lycopene, beta-carotene is fat-soluble, so cooking carrots slowly with olive oil and beef actually helps you get more out of them. They add natural sweetness too, which means we don't need to add any sugar.

Zucchini. The quiet achiever. It melts right into the sauce, adds fibre, vitamin C and potassium, and bulks up the veggie content without changing the flavour at all.

What's hiding in the Kids Hidden Veggie Ragu

Anyone with a picky eater at home knows the dance. You put a plate of beautiful veg in front of them and it comes back untouched (or worse, it ends up on the floor). I've been there more times than I can count, which is exactly why we made this one.

Our Kids Hidden Veggie Ragu has onion, zucchini, carrot and tomato cooked right down into it, so there are no green bits to pick out and nothing to argue about. It's a simpler recipe than the grown-up version, with just basil, olive oil, salt and pepper, because little palates tend to like things gentle. But it's still the same regeneratively farmed, grass-fed and grass-finished beef, and every veggie in there is organic.

So they get the beta-carotene from the carrots, the vitamin C and potassium from the zucchini and tomatoes, the gut-loving fibre from the onion, and protein and iron from the beef. And all they know is that it's spaghetti night.

The herbs and the olive oil

The grown-up ragu gets a proper herb garden: basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, bay and parsley, plus garlic and tomato granules for extra depth. We tend to file herbs under flavour, and they're also concentrated sources of plant compounds called polyphenols, and dried herbs and spices rank among the richest sources in the whole food supply. Garlic has its own long list of reasons to love it, and it contains that same prebiotic fibre you find in onions.

And then there's the organic olive oil, which is in both ragus. It's mostly monounsaturated fat (the good kind), and as I mentioned above, it's doing an important job alongside the veggies by helping your body absorb the lycopene and beta-carotene.

And the beef

Of course we can't talk about ragu without talking about the beef. Ours is regeneratively farmed, 100% grass fed and grass finished, which means the cattle spend their whole lives out on pasture eating grass, on farms that are working to leave the soil healthier than they found it.

Beef is one of the best sources of iron going, and it's the kind of iron (haem iron) that your body absorbs most easily, which matters a lot for growing kids. It also brings protein, zinc and vitamin B12. And studies comparing grass-fed and grain-fed beef have found grass-fed tends to have more omega-3 fats, so the way the animal is raised really does show up on your plate.

Why we bother

We could make a perfectly nice ragu with beef and tomato and call it a day. But the whole reason we started cooking for you was to make the kind of food we feed our own family, the kind where you can read every ingredient and feel good about it. So the veggies go in, the herbs go in, and we cook it low and slow until it all comes together.

Next time you heat one up (and pop a bit of parmesan on top, obviously), you'll know there's a whole garden in there.

Til x

References

1. Tomatoes, cooking and lycopene: Gärtner C, Stahl W, Sies H. Lycopene is more bioavailable from tomato paste than from fresh tomatoes. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1997. (plain-English summary)
2. Tomatoes with olive oil: Fielding JM, Li D, Stockmann R, Sinclair AJ. Lycopene concentration and antioxidant capacity after consuming tomatoes with olive oil. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2001.
3. Onions and quercetin: New Mexico State University. Healthy Facts about onions.
4. Onion, garlic and prebiotic fibre: King's College London. Some types of fibre more beneficial for gut health than others, 2018 (on a meta-analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
5. Mushrooms, B vitamins and selenium: American Mushroom Institute. Mushroom nutrition information. Also Beelman RB et al. Micronutrients and bioactive compounds in mushrooms. Nutrition Today, 2019.
6. Carrots, beta-carotene and vitamin A: healthdirect Australia. Vitamin A and your health.
7. Herbs and polyphenols: Pérez-Jiménez J et al. Identification of the 100 richest dietary sources of polyphenols. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010.
8. Olive oil: Heart Foundation. Fats, oils and heart health.
9. Beef and haem iron: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Iron fact sheet.
10. Grass-fed beef and omega-3: Daley CA et al. A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef. Nutrition Journal, 2010.
11. Vitamin and mineral content of vegetables: Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Australian Food Composition Database.