This Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce is an easy and delicious way to boost your family’s vegetable intake. Packed with a medley of nutritious veggies, this vegetable pasta sauce is perfect for picky eaters and health-conscious foodies alike. It’s a flavourful, thick sauce that pairs with any pasta. Plus, it can be meal prepped and frozen, ready for a quick kid-approved dinner.
Whether you have picky eaters or not, this hidden vegetable pasta sauce is so great to have stored in the freezer. We all reach for a jar of pre-made sauce from time to time for its simple convenience, but have this prepped and ready to go instead! It’s way more flavourful! It’s also additive free, gluten free and can be salt and sugar free too. You can portion it out and freeze for pasta meals, to use as pizza sauce, topping for chicken parmigiana, or any other meal needing a simple tomato-based sauce.
Ingredients in Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce
Just fresh vegetables and a couple of pantry items are needed for this vegetarian pasta sauce:
Onion – Use brown/yellow onion.
Garlic – Substitute the garlic cloves for 2 tsp minced garlic if needed.
Carrot, celery, sweet potato and zucchini – For the flavour base and to get more veggies in!
Capsicum/bell pepper – Use red bell pepper/capsicum for the sweetness and colour.
Mushrooms – Button mushrooms add a nice savoury flavour to the sauce.
Oregano – Use fresh oregano if you can. Fresh thyme or basil are good substitutes.
Tinned tomatoes – I normally use the Ardmona brand of diced tomatoes, which have no added salt or sugar. Check the ingredients listed on the tin, and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Olive oil – For sautéing the vegetables.
Brown sugar – This is optional, but just a small amount brings out the flavour of the tomatoes and other vegetables.
Salt and pepper – Leave out the salt if serving to family under 12 months of age.
How to make this hidden veggie pasta sauce
Thermomixer? This is an easy veggie pasta sauce to make in your machine. Start by chopping the garlic, onion, carrot and celery. Sauté these, and then add the other vegetables. Chop again, and add the remaining ingredients (except the oregano). Cook for 15 minutes, add the herbs and then blend.
Conventional cook? Finely chop the garlic, onion, celery and carrot. Sauté them in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining ingredients (except the oregano). Simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft – you may need to adjust the cooking time, depending on how large your vegetable pieces are. Add the oregano, and transfer to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth.
See the recipe card below for ingredient amounts and detailed steps for both thermo cooker and conventional cooking methods.
Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce for babies and toddlers
This Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce recipe is perfect for babies, toddlers and their adults. It’s easily adapted to have no sugar or salt, and is flavourful enough to satisfy everyone’s tastes. This veggie-loaded sauce boosts the nutritional value of a pasta meal, and is an easy way to sneak more vegetables into baby or toddler diets. Or older children and adults too for that matter!
Serving and storing this veggie pasta sauce
Serve this Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce over your favourite pasta for an easy, nutritious dinner. Or use it as pizza sauce, topping for chicken parmigiana, or any other meal needing a simple tomato-based sauce. It’s really versatile!
This pasta sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. I like to portion it out when freezing, for future pasta meals as well as pizza sauce. You can use ice cube trays for freezing little portions, so it’s easy to defrost what you need.
Looking for another vegetable-based pasta sauce? Try this Butternut Squash and Pine Nut Pasta. It’s a creamy, comforting pasta (without the cream!) and another kid friendly dinner.
If you make this Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce please leave a 🌟 star rating and a 📝 comment below. I love hearing how my recipes work for you and your family! Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest too for more healthy dinner recipes for family.
Happy cooking,
Chloe x
Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce
Category: Family MainsTap or hover to scale
Ingredients
- 1 brown/yellow onion peeled and quartered
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- 70 g / 1 carrot peeled and roughly chopped
- 70 g / 1 celery stalk roughly chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 180 g / 1 zucchini roughly chopped
- 75 g / 3 button mushrooms halved
- 150 g / 1 red capsicum/bell pepper de-seeded and roughly chopped
- 100 g sweet potato peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 400g/ 14oz can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar optional
- 1 tbs tomato paste
- 1/4 tsp salt for family over 12 months
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 sprigs fresh oregano leaves only
Thermo Cooker Instructions
- Put the onion, garlic, carrot and celery into the mixing bowl. Chop for 3 seconds, speed 7, MC on. Scrape down the mixing bowl.
- Add the olive oil. Cook for 5 minutes, 100°C, speed 1, MC off.
- Add the zucchini, mushrooms, capsicum and sweet potato. Chop for 5 seconds, speed 7, MC on. Scrape down the mixing bowl. If any large vegetable pieces remain, repeat this step.
- Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook 15 minutes, 100°C, speed 1, MC off. Put the simmering basket on the lid to prevent splatter.
- Add the oregano. Blend for 1 minute, speed 7, MC on, increasing the speed gradually.
Conventional Instructions
- Finely chop the onion, garlic, carrot and celery.
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes or until translucent.
- Add zucchini, mushrooms, capsicum, sweet potato, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, and then let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until vegetables are soft.
- Add the oregano.
- Transfer sauce mixture to a food processor or blender, or use an immersion blender. Carefully blend until smooth.
