My Favorite Homemade Vegetable-Packed Pasta Sauce that I make…
Every Single Week (x2)!
This is it: this is the recipe that will save your butt in a jiffy. I think the best thing about this recipe is that you can substitute AS MUCH as you wish. You can use absolutely any variety of vegetables, fresh or frozen, in this recipe. As long as it blends, you can add it.
Each and every week our family tries out a brand new recipe version of this basic recipe. Some of our favorite vegetable swaps include:
- Zucchini
- Eggplant
- Mushrooms
- Broccoli
- Bell Peppers
- Sun-dried tomatoes
And, while we are on the subject of substituting, I also love to add in the following on any given day:
- Hemp seeds
- Sunflower Seeds
- Pecans
- Cashews
- Pepita seeds
While I urge you to have as much fun with this as possible, I also encourage you to try to stick to the ingredient amounts for best taste. If you substitute the cauliflower for broccoli or zucchini, I advise you to stick with the 1 cup amount. The same goes for the seeds and nuts.
If you are a big spice lover like me, get crazy and add in 2 jalapeno peppers if you wish!
If it blends, you can toss it into this homemade vegetable-packed pasta sauce recipe!
P.s. I highly recommend this Food Processor as I am a bit in love with it at the moment (and for the next 15 years).
Benefits of This Sauce
- Easily allows you and your children to reach the recommended daily amounts of vegetables by blending! It’s like a smoothie in a pasta dish (in all the good ways – I promise).
- Picky Eater Approved! I have yet to meet a child who does not love a blended pasta sauce. Even better if you let the child participate in the creating of this magical sauce. Let them toss in the veggies and the ingredients! (FYI: You can also turn this into a soup with just 2 cups of vegetable broth).
- Turns a simple Pasta dinner into the most nutritionally packed dinner of the week: There is almost no way that any other meal can beat this one once you have added all of the amazing ingredients. Feel free to add any extras like…
- Turmeric
- Moringa
- Rosemary
- Kale
- Allows even the most hectic and stressful day to become a nutritionally conscious one. Parenting is HARD. Heck…just living is hard sometimes. I promise that this meal will check off all of your boxes and allow dinner to come together in under 10 minutes.
- Budget-friendly: This is about as budget-friendly as you want it to be. Some pasta sauce, a can of beans, random veggies (on sale perhaps?) and some spaghetti? It’s a winner!
Kid-Approved Veggie Packed Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 30 oz Jar Pasta Sauce
- 1 can cannelini beans
- 1 cup cauliflower
- 1 cup spinach loosely packed
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 small bunch fresh basil
- Any additonal seasoning that you wish to add
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to food processor and process until well blended.
- Cook pasta according to package direction.
- Once pasta has finished cooking, drain well and then mix with homemade pasta sauce. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Spicy Veggie Packed Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 30 oz Jar Pasta Sauce
- 1 can cannelini beans
- 1 cup spinach packed
- 3/4 cups walnuts (any nut/seed will do)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 bunch fresh basil
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed If sensitive to spicy foods, use a small amount of jalapeno at a time
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to food processor and process until well blended.
- Cook pasta according to package direction.
- Once pasta has finished cooking, drain well and then mix with homemade pasta sauce. Enjoy!
Nutrition
p.s. If you dig this recipe, try out these other hits!
Die you blend the veggies raw? And don’t heat the sauce at all?
Hi Susanne! So for the recipes listed, they are raw or slightly steamed (it all depends on your preference but we chose raw for the quickest possible recipe). The cooked noodles usually heat the pasta sauce up enough once mixed (we like to mix the pasta noodles and the pasta sauce in the heated pot). If the sauce is not hot enough for you, just toss into a small saucepan and heat until your desired warmth is reached.
This recipe can be made to your liking: sometimes I will steam the cauliflower and broccoli before blending but usually raw because I of personal preference (you will notice quickly that the cooked veggies will blend into more of a creamy mixture while the raw gives it more of rainbow of colors). For leftovers, we always heat up.