This Healthy Pasta Sauce is filled with hidden vegetables! A hearty meat and tomato sauce filled with pureed vegetables. This healthy sauce is loaded with flavor and you’ll never know it’s filled with veggies. Serve with spaghetti, lasagna, stuffed peppers, roasted vegetables, and more!
When I was a child, spaghetti with meat sauce was a staple in our house. My mom would either make a quick pot of meat sauce on the stovetop or a slow simmered batch in the crock pot. We would eat it over pasta, layered in lasagna, or by the spoonful standing over the stove. And every Halloween, we would have spaghetti with meat sauce before trick or treating.
It was no surprise that once I started cooking for my own family, pasta with meat sauce made its way into a regular rotation. My kids love pasta and I appreciate making a meal that I know my kids will actually eat. Both of my kids are willing to eat a variety of veggies, but I still feel like they could be eating more. I started adding pureed vegetables into my meat sauce to bump up the nutritional value.
Healthy Pasta Sauce
- Ground beef,
- Marinara
- Crushed tomatoes
- Italian seasoning
- Pureed vegetables
The vegetables impart little to no flavor, and since they are pureed, there are no veggie chunks that might deter picky eaters. If you have kids (or adults) in your family that aren’t eating enough veggies, then this is the way to change that.
For this batch I used a mixture of carrots, celery, red bell pepper, onion, and spinach. This combination lends a little sweetness to the sauce without adding a strong vegetable flavor. Feel free to swap around the vegetables to suit your taste or just use what you have on hand. Mushrooms are great in here too!
If you’d prefer to skip the pasta, you can enjoy this sauce spooned over roasted vegetables (pictured below). Because here’s the thing (sigh), I can’t eat pasta as often as I’d like. My metabolism is slowing to a glacial pace, and my hips punish me if I eat too many carbs. Lately I’ve been roasting a big batch of vegetables and topping them with this meat sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
Although, let it be known that plenty of times I will take a piece of crusty bread and drag it right though this sauce and into my mouth. Calories consumed while standing over the stove don’t count, right?
Last but not least, can we quickly talk about kids and veggies? I take my kids’ nutrition seriously. Good nutrition is essential to good health, and we all want our kiddos to be healthy, right? I introduced my kids to different fruits and vegetables from a very young age. Some they like, some they don’t, and some they like one day and hate the next. My one piece of advice to all the parents/future parents out there is not to give up on picky eaters. My 5 year old went through a super picky phase where he disliked most vegetables. I kept offering veggies at every meal and eventually he came around and started eating a large variety.
I know all kids are different, and if you’re struggling to get your kids to eat their veggies there’s no shame in sneaking them in.
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Meat Sauce with Hidden Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 large stalk celery, chopped
- 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 heaping handfuls fresh baby spinach
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 2 25 oz jars marinara sauce
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- Pinch of sugar, if desired
Instructions
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute ground beef in olive oil until brown, periodically breaking it apart with a wooden spoon. While the meat is browning, place all the vegetables and garlic in a food processor and puree until completely smooth. Add the vegetable puree to the meat, and cook, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid has evaporated (the mixture might look unappetizing at this point, but it will look better after adding the tomatoes). Add the salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, marinara, crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, and a pinch of sugar. Stir to combine. Simmer, partially covered for 30 minutes. Taste and add additional seasoning if necessary.
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Melissa
This recipe is a huge winner in my book. My fifteen year-old son doesn’t like that many vegetables but he loves this pasta sauce. I double the batch, mix with his favorite noodles and cheese and freeze meal-sized portions. He will often eat it for lunch AND dinner on the same dinner. I have tried different combination of veggies as well… zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, kale and even red cabbage sometimes. As long as the veggiers are pulverized in the food processor and there’s enough meat and tomato sauce to offset, it’s a winner every time!
Celebrating Sweets
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. I’m glad to hear it works with lots of other veggies too. Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Happy holidays!
Laura
This is my go-to spaghetti sauce recipe! Love to add broccoli to the veggies. I also double the seasonings, and add 1tsp of sugar and 1/4C of white wine. It freezes great and is always a hit!
Allison
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Shanna
This is a really good spaghetti sauce. My kids won’t eat nary a vegetable so this is perfect! I added a can of tomato paste for some extra bam! and nutrition.
Celebrating Sweets
Yay! I love sneaking veggies into my kids meals. I’m so glad that you liked this. Thanks for stopping by!
claire
hi there just found this after looking for hidden veg sauce receipes, looks great! please tell me though do you chuck the veg in the food processor raw? then add to the meat to cook? thanks!
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Claire. It’s in the instructions: puree raw veggies in food processor, and brown beef in saute pan. Enjoy!
Jaylah
It actually doesn’t say raw in the recipe above. But thanks for clarifying as I was wondering the same thing 🙂
Heather
This recipe is amazing! I was actually looking for a meat sauce recipe for myself with vegetables, and came across this. I used the veggies suggested in the recipe and came out superb. I blended half an onion with the veggies and sauteed the other half and garlic with the beef but either way you choose to do it is delicious. Adds a really nice flavor as well (yet I can see how picky kids would not be able to tell! 😉 Will definitely make this again and I’m thinking on adding some zucchini as well! I’ll try various veggies 🙂 Thanks for this recipe!
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to comment. -Allison
Barbara
Hi! This sounds awesome! Can I freeze it?
Celebrating Sweets
Yes, you can. Enjoy!
sarah
Hi, this looks great! By adding it to a baked pasta dish, will the flavors of the vegetables be more noticeable? Thanks 🙂
Allison
No, that shouldn’t affect the flavor. Enjoy!
Catherine Olds
Where is the recipe for the roasted vegetables? Thanks!
Allison
You can use any recipe you’d like for the roasted vegetables. Here is a recipe and guide: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-roast-any-vegetable-101221
Dana
Wow, this sauce was fantastic because I was able to add zucchini which my kids won’t typically eat! I also added baby sweet peppers that were starting to wrinkle. Even without the sweetness of carrots, the sauce didn’t taste too much like vegetables. In my Vitamix, I added crushed tomatoes to the bottom to help the vegetables blend easier. Thank you for taking the time to create and post this recipe. This is definitely in our family’s rotation now.
Allison
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Susanne Keiler
Yummy and healthy! My husband asked me when I learned how to cook like an Italian grandmother.
Allison
Haha! Glad you enjoyed the recipe. 🙂