Pasta sauce is a delicious and easy way to add more vegetables to your family’s meals. Loaded with tomatoes, spinach, zucchini, bell pepper, carrots, and onions, this veggie pasta sauce can be enjoyed chunky or pureed smooth to help even the most selective of eaters enjoy their veggies!
Smoothies were kind of my gateway to our veggie-loaded lifestyle. Once I saw how easy and amazing it was to add veggies into a simple smoothie recipe, I started looking for other innovative ways to get bonus veggies into my little family’s diet. Especially at dinner! I have made so many veggie-loaded dinner recipes since discovering the magic of veggie-loading, and while I have many pasta recipes on rotation, this easy Veggie Pasta Sauce was one of our favorites and remains my go-to recipe for pasta sauce!
This easy vegetable sauce is loaded with 6 different kinds of vegetables and comes together in under 30 minutes. It makes 4 cups of sauce and freezes beautifully, so make some now and save it for a quick and easy veggie-loaded option on a busy night. You can leave it a little chunky or puree it smooth with your immersion blender, whichever your family prefers. It is vegan, gluten free, Paleo, plant based and Whole30 friendly. So, no matter your eating style, this vegetable sauce will fit into your dinner time and effortlessly help you eat more veggies!
Can I add veggies to jarred sauce?
Absolutely!
Truth be told, I started veggie-loading my family’s sauce simply by adding pureed or grated veggies to commercially prepared tomato sauce. It was easy and did the trick. And I was utterly dazzled with how my family inhaled their dinner without so much as a wrinkled nose or questioning eye. So, right away, I was SOLD on veggie-loading all the tomato sauce.
How to I store this veggie sauce?
I keep it in an air-tight container (like a mason jar) for about a week in the fridge. Or I portion it out into freezer safe containers and freeze it to use for up to 2 months!
Can I can this sauce?
I honestly haven’t tried and know very little about canning, so I can’t answer that from an expert position. If, however, you are a canning expert…I’d love to hear your thoughts and/or if you do try canning this vegetable sauce!
Do you have some spinach leftover after whipping up this Easy Veggie Pasta Sauce? Don’t let it go to waste! Check out my tips & tricks for keeping spinach fresh all week!
Suggested adaptations
- Get creative with the veggies! This recipe is just a rough framework of what how you could veggie-load your tomato sauce….but I encourage you to make it your own, omit what you want, and use what you have on hand. I love adding mushrooms and cooked lentils to mine!
- Enjoy it as a pizza sauce. Boom! Pizza night is suddenly veggie-loaded too!
- Puree it smooth or leave it chunky to fit your family’s personal taste.
Use “sneaky veggies” as a stepping stone
If you are hiding veggies from your family, that’s cool. It’s a great first step into getting veggies into their (or your) diets! However, I encourage you not to resort to ONLY hiding the veggies. Maybe after a few rounds of this tomato sauce (that your family will undoubtedly adore), leave a few chunks of veggies in the sauce for them to stumble upon. Or invite them to help you MAKE the sauce so they see how much they have been LOVING all these veggies! Once they realize they have been eating veggies all along and enjoying them, they might be more open to eating them NOT hidden.
Other veggie-loaded recipes you and the family are going to adore.
- Spaghetti Squash Pizza Casserole
- No-Boil Creamy Vegetable Pasta Bake
- Baked Pasta with Eggplant
- Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
- Veggie-Loaded Turkey Tacos
- Cauliflower Tots (Baked or Air Fryer)
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Easy Veggie Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon oil of choice
- ½ small yellow onion diced
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder or to taste
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 cups zucchini grated
- 1 ½ cups carrots grated
- ½ bell pepper deseeded and diced
- 2 cups chopped spinach, loosely packed
- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ cup stock or broth
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Place a large saucepan over medium heat and heat up the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onions, garlic powder, salt, and Italian seasoning. Saute for about 4 minutes or until onions are translucent.
- Add zucchini, carrots, bell pepper, and spinach to the pot. Saute the veggies until they are softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves, and stock to the pot. Stir until combined and cover. Once sauce starts to boil, lower heat to a simmer and cook UNCOVERED for 15 minutes.
- Once done cooking, remove bay leaves. Use an immersion blender to puree the sauce to preferred consistency. If you can, use a regular blender to blend this sauce in batches, but transfer it carefully as it will be hot!
- Taste and add extra salt or garlic powder if desired.
- Serve over your favorite pasta or spiralized veggie. Enjoy as is or add cooked ground meat or meatballs.
- Allow leftover sauce to completely cool before transferring it to an air-tight container. Store in fridge for up to 6 days or freeze to have on hand for months to come.
Nutrition
The nutritional information is provided as an estimate only and may vary based on the product type, servings and other factors. If you are following a diet, please consult with a professional nutritionist or your doctor. Stay healthy!
Comments
So many sneaky veggies in here–brilliant! Sounds delicious, too!
Smart momma!! This sounds delicious, I do something similar in my blender, but roast all the veggies first, I want to try your version too!
Oh my goodness you were able to jam-pack so much veggie goodness into this sauce! I’m a huge fan of sauces like this. What a lovely way to use up the end of the summer tomatoes.
Such a great and delicious way to sneak in a ton of veggies in one meal! I love sauces like this one.
I love that this will leave leftovers for another time too! My girls will love this for pasta night! I love your story 🙂 I just listened to your podcast at Live Simply and it is so relate-able!
So colorful and delicious. totally love it!
This is so pretty and exactly how sauce should be made. I can’t wait to try this one!
Enjoy!
Oooh! I think I could make this in my ACE blender! Thanks for the recipe- it’s on the list for this week 😀
How much does this make?
My toddler just asked for a spoon to eat it like soup. Clearly a hit!!
Yay! Yes, clearly!
This is THE. BEST. sauce! I love how easy it is and how adaptable it can be… no zucchini, no problem! Carrots that need to be used, add extra! I realized tonight how amazing this sauce is with some roasted garlic added in….. 🤤🤤🤤
Recipe calls for crushed tomatoes… Would it work to use the same sized can of whole tomatoes? Or would this mess with the consistency?
It might be a little less tomato-y but I think the consistency should be fine as well as the flavor.
This is pretty much the only sauce my family eats. I can throw whatever veggies I have and need to be used up in and it’s great. Plus, I love how easy it is and that my family is getting extra veggies in with every bite
Ohmg, THIS. I didn’t have any zuch and I added a can of chickpeas but holy cow, I can’t believe how scrumptious this was! I also added 3 tbsp of nutritional yeast and some ‘mushroom umami’ seasoning I have from Target. The flavors were so rich, and yet the sauce was so freakin’ healthy! I love knowing exactly what’s in my sauce, and quite honestly it’s so hard to find a jar from the store with flavor. This is definitely becoming a staple, anddd there was enough for me to freeze like 2.5 cups for next time! THANK YOU, another knockout (is anyone surprised!?!?! Taesha be killin’ it!)
Oh ma, I LOVE the additions you made! Totally trying those in my next batch! So glad you love it as much as we do!
So great! Was able to easily adjust it for my intolerances (no onion or garlic) and love it!
I am so glad, Julie! I love a good recipe that is easy to adapt to our own unique needs without taking away from the flavor! Thanks for sharing.
Have you adapted this to the instant pot by any chance? I’m still new at using mine and am still afraid I’m going to mess up cooking times!
I’m in the process of trying to create an IP version of this. I am thinking about 20 minutes on high pressure. If the sauce is too thin, you could use the sauté function to cook off some of the extra liquid to your desired consistency.
I made this to go with the Baked Pasta with Eggplant. It made 7 cups instead of 4! That’s okay, because it’s very good. It just surprised me. It worked fine to let it cool and then run it through the blender. Unfortunately my carrots were extra sweet and gave the sauce and casserole a sweeter flavor. I used a tablespoon of chopped fresh basil for the Italian seasoning. One last note, it took me more than 10 minutes to do all the washing, cutting, shredding, and measuring.
This sauce freezes great, so I’m glad you have lots of extra. I have never ended up with 7 cups from this recipe, though! A good problem to have! As I noted in your Eggplant Pasta review, carrots are in this recipe because their natural sweetness helps to balance the acid in the tomatoes. However, the sweetness of carrots can vary for oodles of reasons.It is an excellent note that tasting the finished sauce and adding extra salt as needed can be helpful. Thanks for sharing!