30-Minute Veggie-Loaded Tomato Sauce
Are you looking for an easy (and maybe slightly sneaky) way to get wholesome and nutrient-dense veggies into your and your family's diet? 30-Minute Veggie-Loaded Tomato Sauce is the perfect place to start! Chock FULL of oodles of veggies, all made in one pot and done cooking by the time the pasta has finished boiling, this veggie-loaded sauce is perfect for a healthy dinner on the busiest of weeknights! Plus, you'll have leftovers to enjoy and to help make your next meal veggie-loaded too!
Pin this recipe for later!
So, I have probably told you guys all about how I started my veggie-loaded journey with adding green smoothies to my family's diet.
Wait. No I haven't! Well, thats another blog post for another day. But the short of it is: We started drinking green smoothies because my husband and I realized we were kind of addicted to crappy processed food. And it was game changing! How we felt. How we ate. How we lived as a whole! And we became hooked on veggie-loaded smoothies.
Especially me.
Smoothies were kind of my gateway to a veggie-loading obsession. Once I saw how easy and amazing it was to add veggies into a simple smoothie recipe, I started looking for other innovative ways to get bonus veggies into my little family's diet. I made some *really bad* veggie-loaded recipes that we simply won't talk about. And some really awesome ones that I still use to this day! Like this 30-Minute Veggie-Loaded Tomato Sauce.
Truth be told, I started simply by adding pureed or grated veggies to commercially prepared tomato sauce. It was easy and did the trick. And I was utterly dazzled with how my family inhaled their dinner (sneaky veggies and all) without so much as a wrinkled nose or questioning eye. So, right away, I was SOLD on veggie-loading all the tomato sauce.
Since that day (probably 5ish years ago), I have since turned over a jar of tomato sauce and actually read the ingredients label! Now, don't get me wrong. There are some pretty great pasta and tomato sauces out there on grocery store shelves made with simple, real food ingredients.
HOWEVER....
There are many jars of tomato sauce that are full of less than desirable ingredients. Like sugar. And weird preservatives. And a slew of other things that I just wasn't jazzed about feeding my family on top of their pizza or zoodles. So, I started exploring how to make my own tomato sauce. And you know what I discovered?
It's pretty stinking easy! And delicious!
And while I not longer feel like I need to sneak my family's veggies (they are used to them in all the food now), I still really love to load up our tomato sauce with oodles of them....because why not? Bonus veggies are always a good thing and I feel like all those awesome colorful plants really enhance the flavor and nutrition of our dinner!
SUGGESTED ADAPTATIONS
1. Get creative with the veggies! Don't have zucchini? Add extra carrots! Have some broccoli that needs to be used up? Don't be afraid to add that into the mix! This recipe is just a rough framework of what how you could veggie-load your tomato sauce....but I encourage you to make it your own!
2. Use "sneaky veggies" as a baby step. If you are hiding veggies from your family, that's cool. It's a great first step into getting veggies into their (or your) diets! However, I encourage you not to resort to ONLY hiding the veggies. Maybe after a few rounds of this tomato sauce (that your family will undoubtedly adore), leave a few chunks of veggies in the sauce for them to stumble upon. Or invite them to help you MAKE the sauce so they see how much they have been LOVING all these veggies! Once they realize they have been eating veggies all along and enjoying them, they might be more open to eating them NOT hidden.
30-Minute Veggie-Loaded Tomato Sauce
Are you looking for an easy (and maybe slightly sneaky) way to get wholesome and nutrient dense veggies into your and your family's diet? 30-Minute Veggie-Loaded Tomato Sauce is the perfect place to start! Chocked FULL of oodles of veggies, all made in one pot and done cooking by the time the pasta has finished boiling, this veggie-loaded sauce is perfect for a healthy dinner on the busiest of weeknights! Plus, you'll have leftovers to enjoy and to help make your next meal veggie-loaded too!
ingredients:
- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
- 1/2 a bell pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 1/2 cup chopped spinach, loosely packed
- 1/2 cup stock or broth
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
instructions:
- Combine all of the ingredients in a large sauce pot. Stir a few times to mix everything together.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once sauce starts to bubble, lower heat and cook UNCOVERED for 20 minutes.
- Once done cooking, remove bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to puree the sauce to preferred consistency.
- Taste and add extra salt, pepper or garlic powder if desired.
- Serve over your favorite pasta, spiralized veggies or on pizza. Enjoy as is or add cooked ground meat or meatballs.
- Allow leftover sauce to completely cool before transferring it to an air-tight container. Store in fridge for up to a week or freeze to have on hand for months to come.
notes
1. Get creative with the veggies! Don't have zucchini? Add extra carrots! Have some broccoli that needs to be used up? Don't be afraid to add that into the mix! This recipe is just a rough framework of what how you could veggie-load your tomato sauce....but I encourage you to make it your own! 2. Use "sneaky veggies" as a baby step. If you are hiding veggies from your family, thats cool. It's a great first step into getting veggies into their (or your) diets! However, I encourage you not to resort to ONLY hiding the veggies. Maybe after a few rounds of this tomato sauce (that your family will undoubtedly adore), leave a few chunks of veggies in the sauce for them to stumble upon. Or invite them to help you MAKE the sauce so they see how much they have been LOVING all these veggies! Once they realize they have been eating veggies all a long and enjoying them, they might be more open to eating them NOT hidden.
