Delicious hidden vegetable pasta sauce – even the fussiest of kids with love this veggie packed sauce.

Hidden Veggie Tomato Sauce

With my kids now older and with more of an opinion on what they will and will not eat, I am often trying to come up with ways to get more vegetables into their diet, the youngest one has become extremely fussy over the last year or so, something that I know is pretty common with younger kids after going through the same with my oldest.

She won’t eat many vegetables if she sees them in their natural form, but I can hide them in a soup, sauce or casserole and she is fine.

One of her favourite meals is pasta with any kind of tomato-based pasta sauce, so it is always a good meal to make as I can sneak so many vegetables into the sauce.

Five Vegetable Pasta Sauce

Not including the onion and garlic that go into this sauce, there are five addition vegetables. Thats a perfectly packed veggie sauce and it’s really delicious.

You can spoon it over pasta just as it is, or add in some protein like chicken, or cooked ground meat like beef, chicken or turkey. Even some cooked sausage worked perfectly.

If you a vegetarian family, then lentils are beans are a great addition.

Cheesy Hidden Vegetable Pasta Sauce

If your kids love cheese and let’s face it, most kids love cheese and you are not dairy free. Then this hidden veggie sauce is taken to a whole over level with some grated cheese stirred through, like parmesan and cheddar or just cheddar if you kids do not like the strong flavour of parmesan.

Got one kid that like cheese and another that doesn’t? Then it’s so easy to accommodate to both by just added grated cheese to the top for the one that does.

So many variations can be made with this, use it as a starting point for many different pasta dishes of your choosing.

How to make Hidden Vegetable Pasta Sauce

Along with the vegetables I like to use olive oil for sautéing and a few different herbs, such as oregano, basil and fennel for flavour.

If you have certain herbs or flavours you prefer or do not like ones that I use, don’t be scared to alter it to your taste.

A blender is of course needed to make the sauce nice and smooth and is the key to hiding those vegetables but it doesn’t need to be an expensive blender an immersion stick blending will perfectly do the job and they are so cheap nowadays. Great for if you don’t have the room for a large on the counter blender.

More Pasta Recipes

Do you have a family who loves pasta dishes? Then check out some of these other recipes:

Bolognese Pasta Bake
Sausage and Bean Pasta Bake
Cherry Tomato and Basil Pasta
Beef and Tomato Macaroni
Creamy Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
Spaghetti Bolognese
Minestrone Soup

or head on over to my FULL RECIPE INDEX for more delicious recipes for Little Hands

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Hidden Vegetable Pasta Sauce

Yield: SERVES 4

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Additional Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Delicious hidden vegetable pasta sauce - even the fussiest of kids with love this veggie packed sauce.

Ingredients

2 tbs of olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tbs of chopped fresh basil
1 tsp of oregano
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds, crushed
2 cups (480ml) of no added salt chopped tomatoes (canned)
2 tbs of tomato paste
1 tbs of balsamic vinegar
low sodium vegetable or chicken stock (broth)
salt and black pepper

Instructions

Add olive to a deep saucepan or frying pan and heat over a medium high heat.
Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrot and fry until softened.
Add in the red pepper, zucchini, basil, oregano, fennel, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar and 1/2 cup of stock.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.
Add all ingredinets to a blender and blend until smooth.
Add back to the pan and add more stock (broth) until it is your desired consistency of thickness.
Taste and season
Serve over pasta and enjoy!!!

Notes

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian friendly

*suitable for freezing

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