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Tomato Sauce with Hidden Veggies
Tomato Sauce with Hidden Veggies
About a year or so ago I started looking into the amount of sugar contained in many of the items we have around our house. Mainly sauces, dressings and that sort of thing.
I was a little alarmed with the sugar content I found, plus I thought it was fairly unnecessary in most things too!
So I started making a lot of our food from scratch, including my own tomato sauce (the type you would usually use in pasta type dishes) and thought I would share my latest creation on here with you.
On a recent visit to my parents place we decided to have lasagna for dinner.
My Mum isn’t one who is too keen on onions or garlic, and my Aunty (who was there too) can’t stand capsicum, so I made up a variation on my usual sauce for dinner that night (so much fuss over ingredients… is this what it’s like to have kids?? hehe).
So anyway, this time around I decided to include some hidden veggies as well to flesh out the sauce a bit and make the meal a bit more healthy overall.
See below for the recipe!
Here are a couple of before and after pics:
Ingredients
- 11 tomatoes, diced
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 zucchini, grated
- bunch of basil (I used thai basil, but each to their own on this one)
- season with salt and pepper
Method
- Place all ingredients in a large saucepan
- Cook on high  with lid on until it all starts bubbling
- Turn down to a low simmer with the lid off
- Once all the ingredients have turned mushy, blend with a hand blender
- Add to your favourite pasta dish! (For this one we mixed it into mince and made a delicious lasagne, but I often use the sauce to make spaghetti bolognese or ravioli or a chicken pasta bake… the list is endless really!)
Notes
When I make this at home to pair with spaghetti or ravioli, I usually ditch the carrot and zucchini and add onion, garlic and capsicum. I put all the ingredients on a tray in the oven and bake for approx 30 mins before placing into the saucepan to reduce on low heat. It gives it an awesome flavour which I actually prefer over any store bought pasta sauce!
I’m not sure if my at-home version of it is kid-friendly, but if you give it a go and find they like it, please let me know!
If you want to use this recipe to make pizza sauce, just let it reduce on low heat until it’s nice and thick 🙂
Do you have any tricks for hiding veggies in food for your kids? Let us know in the comments below!
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5 Replies to “Tomato Sauce with Hidden Veggies”
Oh, this is perfect! My daughter used to love eating salads but lately she has been neglecting them! This is the perfect way to get those veggies into her! haha Thanks xxx
This looks so yummy! Definitely saving it for later.
God bless the food processor! My kids just can’t stand to see the onion and tomato chunks…
I love this! This sounds so yummy. 🙂 The hidden veggies are key with some stubborn kiddos.
This looks SO deliciously creamy! We have this jarred sauce here in the states called Rao’s. That one has no added sugar in it so it’s my go-to when I don’t want to make my own! But this recipe you’ve provided looks like it doesn’t require too much effort which is nice!