Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce
on Sep 07, 2022, Updated May 08, 2024
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Love pasta, hate veggies? 🍝 I have the perfect dish for you! Whether you need to get more nutrients in your diet, are texture averse, or are trying to sneak veggies onto your kid’s plate, this hidden veggie pasta sauce is the answer! This sauce is so creamy, no one will know there are more than a handful of different vegetables included. When it comes to picky eaters, my motto is: if they don’t ask, simply don’t tell. 🤫
Why You’ll Love Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce
Blending fully cooked vegetables in tomato sauce not only masks their flavor, but it produces a deceptively creamy, thick sauce that clings to noodles and is irresistible. This recipe is for anyone looking to incorporate more vegetables 🍅 🥕 into their diet without the overwhelming taste or texture. Perfect for back-to-school 🎒and meal prep, the sauce can easily be batch-cooked and frozen 🧊.
How to Prepare Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce
🔥 Warm the olive oil in a large pan with high sides over medium heat.
🧅 Add the vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 10 minutes.
🧂 Season to taste with salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
🧄 Then stir in the garlic and add the tomato sauce. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pan with a lid, and let simmer, about 15 minutes.
🌀 Remove from the heat and carefully add the mixture to a blender. Blend on high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
🍝 Meanwhile, cook your pasta of choice.
🍽 Lastly, combine the sauce and pasta, garnish with parm, and enjoy.
Nonna’s Tip
For a more luxurious, silky sauce, add a splash of heavy cream or coconut cream during the last minute of cooking the sauce.
Variations and Substitutions for Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce
- To convert this dish into a creamy veggie soup, simply add some vegetable broth and enjoy. 🥣
- You can try this with passata (pureed strained tomatoes) or your favorite homemade tomato sauce or store-bought. I like Rao’s.
- Mix and match your own favorite vegetables in this recipe; just make sure they are not too pungent (like asparagus) or fibrous (like artichoke). Vegetables such as eggplant, squash, fennel, and sweet peppers would all work well. 🍆
- Any variety of onion will work: white, yellow, red; even shallots. 🧅
- Be sure to season with salt as you cook: after the vegetables have cooked and again after the sauce has been pureed. You can’t take back too much salt, but you can always add more.
Similar Recipes
Hidden Veggie Chicken Soup
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Hidden Veggie Orzo Soup
1 hr 5 mins
Hidden Veggie Meatball Soup
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Hidden Veggie Chicken Soup
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Best Served With
- You can’t go wrong with a side of crusty homemade bread. 🥖
- Try this with a classic wedge salad as your side. 🥗
- A crisp and simple fennel salad helps balance out the pasta.
- Add some protein in the form of delicious meatballs.
Common Questions
Yes, you can certainly add protein. Cooked ground beef, or cubed cooked chicken would be lovely folded into the sauce. I love this with grilled shrimp on top. 🍤
If you are taking this meal to work or sending it for the kids at school, you can boil the pasta in the morning, coat it with the sauce and pop it in a thermos. A trick to keeping the thermos warm is to add boiling hot water to your thermos and dump it out before you add the pasta in so that it ensures the thermos stays hot for longer.
You can make a big batch of this sauce and freeze it for up to 6 months. You can even freeze it into small portions and store in small Ziplock bags.
Check out the comments for how many people and their kids have loved this recipe! To ensure the vegetables are well masked, cut each vegetable the same size, so that they cook evenly. If you want, add more tomato sauce to further mask the flavor.
Try using it as a pizza sauce or add vegetable broth to make it a creamy vegetable soup.
Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- salt, to taste
- 1 ½ cups tomato sauce
- 4 cups pasta, any shape you like
- grated parmesan cheese, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Warm the olive oil in a large pan with high sides over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, bell pepper, and zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are translucent, about 10 minutes.
- Season to taste with salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Stir in the garlic and add the tomato sauce. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pan with a lid, leaving a small opening on the side, and let simmer, about 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and carefully add the mixture to a blender. Blend on high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
- In the meantime, cook your pasta of choice in boiling salted water until al dente. I used half of my sauce and added the cooked pasta to it with a touch of the pasta water.
- Garnish with parm, if using, and enjoy. I reserved the remaining sauce for the week but you can use it all up if you are a family of 4 or 5 as this recipe makes a lot of sauce.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My family doesn’t eat vegetables like I do, but I took a chance with this recipe and they loved it! I added ground beef as my protein and it helped to mask any texture in the sauce that didn’t get blended out. Everyone ate a heaping plate and asked me to make it again sometime soon ☺️
Love to hear this, Tara! It will be our little secret!
We felt like something was missing from this sauce as it was, and it tasted mostly of just plain pureed vegetables. The next day I reheated/simmered it with extra tomato sauce mixed it, and it was great. In all, I believe I more than doubled the tomato sauce in the recipe. Of course this can be due to the sauce we used so I am wary of rating the recipe. I’m still glad to have found this recipe and will make it again with the extra tomato sauce (and maybe feta cheese).
Thanks for the review KK! Feta sounds nice!
Adding more salt and a small amount of sugar/sweetener can help make it taste more like sauce and less like pureed veggies, as can a little red wine, too.
My boyfriends kids are so picky when it comes to food, especially when they know what’s in it so I try to hide veggies when I cam and they don’t see me. I made the sauce the night before and then let them see me add ground beef and make the rest of the pasta and they looooooved it! The youngest went back for seconds!!!
I love to hear it!! The approval of going for seconds is the best!! Thank you for sharing, Lisa! I appreciate your rating! 🥰
I made this recipe for my son and he loves it!!!! It was so tasty! Thanks so much
So glad he enjoyed it, Shameen! You’re so welcome. And thank YOU for the rating! ❤️😊
Can this sauce be made with meat?
I don’t like this sauce with meat personally but you can absolutely experiment. I think it would pair much better with a protein like shrimp.
This is delicious! My kids ate 2 bowls and have no idea it’s packed with veggies. Thank you!
This was so easy to make and my whole family loved it! I used half of the sauce for pasta and added to other half to a turkey chili. This is my new favorite way to add hidden veggies to our family’s food! Love your instructions, notes, and quick videos! Your recipes are becoming weekly additions in our house!
So glad your family enjoyed it, Nicole. Thank you for the feedback. ❤️
Absolutely amazing recipe packed with lots of vegetables. It’s a simple dinner that’s super healthy too! Definitely a winner with the whole family. Sometimes I use the leftover sauce as a tomato base when making homemade pizza! So versatile, thank you for sharing.
Thanks Mary 🙂 so happy
I’ve been making this recipe since it hit the website. It’s made so often in our house now. Super simple & it’s packed full of veg that we wouldn’t normally like to each on their own. Great way to up the veggie intake 🙂 very impressed!
Hi Vanessa, this review means so much. So happy you love the sauce
Just made this recipe and I can’t tell you how much my husband and I are enjoying it (he’s licking his plate). Such a delicious, easy and healthy recipe!!!! Thank you so much for sharing it
So happy Sue thanks for the sweet words