MasterChef winner Adam Liaw shares his Vegemite spaghetti bolognese recipe

Adam Liaw has been running online cooking lessons for his fans while they are stuck at home in lockdown. 

And one of those meals, his spaghetti bolognese, has raised eyebrows for its very odd secret ingredient. 

The former MasterChef winner, 41, shared his special spagbol recipe to Instagram on Monday and revealed that he adds Vegemite to the mix. 

Adam posted a photo of the dish, alongside a caption that explained his innovation was, ‘the Aussiest spag bol ever with a Vegemite toast pangrattato’.

The term pangrattato refers to breadcrumbs, and Adam uses Vegemite toast to make his crumbs, which are then sprinkled over the pasta and sauce to serve. 

He also shared the ingredients in full so that budding chefs at home can make the unusual dish. 

The celebrity chef recently advised home cooks to substitute missing ingredients with other alternatives so they don’t have to return to the supermarket.

‘If you don’t have sugar, use honey. If you run out of soy sauce, use a bit of salt. No lemon juice? Try vinegar instead,’ he said in a piece for The Good Food.   

Rather than stockpiling, Adam said the best way to make the ingredients stretch further is to ‘throw out less’.

‘If you have some odds and ends of vegetables, chop them up and throw them into that quarantine bolognese. Turn bones and offcuts into stock,’ he said.

The chef encouraged people to ignore ‘use-by’ and ‘best before’ dates – and instead use your nose to check whether the product has gone off. 

The cookbook author also revealed the ingredients every household should always keep in the pantry, including dried mushrooms, polenta and eggs.