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
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Hidden Veggie Meatball Soup
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Hidden Veggie 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
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.
My Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was absolutely delicious, will definitely make it again.
Thank you ❤️!
I usually never engage in any internet blog posts but this recipe was so successful, I had to anyways. We will definitely be using this website again. I used some of the suggested substitutions for the veggies due to a celery allergy, and our red bell pepper wasn’t useable.
This was our combination, we followed all of the other directions for prep, measured the garlic with our hearts, and used Rao’s tomato basil sauce.
One small yellow squash
Two diced carrots
One half large eggplant, diced
One onion, diced
One half zucchini, diced
This sounds delicious! I’m so happy you were able to adjust the recipe to one that was allergy safe and still tasty. Thank you for sharing ❤️!
So delicious and easy!!
Thank you, Danielle! ❤️
I have not made this yet, but am so glad to have found this recipe. Looking forward to making it for my child who isn’t fond of eating veggies.
My question is will this be ok to put in child’s lunch box? Cold or Reheated?
Thank you in advance!
Esther
Hi, Esther! This recipe is perfect for picky eaters! It is ok to send for lunch. I would reheat it and put it in a thermos so your child can enjoy it warm 😊.
This recipe is so simple and turns out delicious! My kids like it too, which says a lot! I use an immersion blender at the end and it’s so easy.
An immersion blender is such a great hack! Thank you for sharing, Jeannette! ❤️
My family loved this, simple and delicious. Even those who don’t like sauce with tomato enjoyed it! Would definitely make again.
Wow, such a great compliment when the whole family loves a dish! 💗
As someone who’s super picky and doesn’t like veggies, I decided to give this a try. I omitted the zucchini as I didn’t have that and I added more salt in addition to black pepper, garlic powder and red pepper flakes and a bit more cheese. I was skeptical about the taste and to my surprise it was incredible. Myself and my boyfriend devoured this and our roommate thought this was simply a jar of tomato sauce that I poured on some pasta. That’s how good it was! Next time I’ll try adding some spinach.
Oh my gosh, Reena, this is incredible to hear!! Yay for learning to love veggies 💗
The sauce tastes so good!!
So happy to hear that Sam <3
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Yes, the sauce freezes nicely! You could portion it into containers, or if you only need a little, freeze in an ice cube mold.