Healthy Pasta Sauce

Published: May 20, 2016 · Modified: May 3, 2023 by Allison · 35 Comments

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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 potof meat sauce on the stovetop ora slowsimmeredbatch in the crock pot. Wewould eat it over pasta, layered in lasagna, or by the spoonful standing over the stove. And everyHalloween, we would have spaghetti with meat sauce before trick or treating.

It was no surprise that once Istarted 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.

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 eatingenough 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!

Recipe

Meat Sauce with Hidden Vegetables

A hearty meat and tomato sauce filled with hidden pureed vegetables. This healthier sauce is loaded with flavor and you'll never know it's filled with veggies. Serve this sauce with spaghetti, lasagna, stuffed peppers, roasted vegetables, and more!

4.94 from 16 votes

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Course: main, Main dish

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 quarts (varies)

Calories: 90kcal

Author: Allison - Celebrating Sweets

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 mostly 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.

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Comments

Melissa
November 19, 2017 at 5:25 pm

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!
Reply
- Celebrating Sweets
  November 20, 2017 at 1:19 pm
  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!
  Reply
- Laura
  January 28, 2022 at 11:30 am
  
  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!
  Reply
  - Allison
    February 01, 2022 at 9:49 am
    Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Shanna
December 12, 2017 at 4:31 pm

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.
Reply
- Celebrating Sweets
  December 13, 2017 at 9:53 am
  Yay! I love sneaking veggies into my kids meals. I’m so glad that you liked this. Thanks for stopping by!
  Reply
claire
April 10, 2019 at 8:54 pm
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!
Reply
- Celebrating Sweets
  April 11, 2019 at 1:22 pm
  Hi, Claire. It’s in the instructions: puree raw veggies in food processor, and brown beef in saute pan. Enjoy!
  Reply
  - Jaylah
    April 29, 2019 at 9:55 pm
    It actually doesn’t say raw in the recipe above. But thanks for clarifying as I was wondering the same thing 🙂
Heather
See Also
Easy Pasta Salad Recipe (The Best!) - Cooking Classy
September 30, 2019 at 3:54 pm
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!
Reply
- Celebrating Sweets
  October 01, 2019 at 9:43 am
  I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to comment. -Allison
  Reply
Barbara
July 05, 2020 at 4:56 am
Hi! This sounds awesome! Can I freeze it?
Reply
- Celebrating Sweets
  July 05, 2020 at 6:46 am
  Yes, you can. Enjoy!
  Reply
sarah
October 18, 2020 at 2:50 pm
Hi, this looks great! By adding it to a baked pasta dish, will the flavors of the vegetables be more noticeable? Thanks 🙂
Reply
- Allison
  October 20, 2020 at 8:45 am
  No, that shouldn’t affect the flavor. Enjoy!
  Reply
Catherine Olds
December 12, 2020 at 9:37 am
Where is the recipe for the roasted vegetables? Thanks!
Reply
- Allison
  December 14, 2020 at 1:10 pm
  You can use any recipe you’d like for the roasted vegetables.
  Reply
Dana
June 05, 2021 at 7:09 pm

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.
Reply
- Allison
  June 08, 2021 at 6:14 pm
  You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
  Reply
Susanne Keiler
October 07, 2021 at 5:22 am

Yummy and healthy! My husband asked me when I learned how to cook like an Italian grandmother.
Reply
- Allison
  October 09, 2021 at 8:39 am
  Haha! Glad you enjoyed the recipe. 🙂
  Reply
Craig
July 02, 2022 at 6:00 pm
We’ven3ver had fussy eater in our home , and we always had the 3 bite rule. If after eating 3 bites, you didn’t have to eat it. Guess what by b the 3rd bite, they loved it .
I’m making your Spaghetti sauce tonight, as i’m texting, for tomorrow’s supper.😋😋😋
Reply

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Hi, I'm Allison! I'm a busy wife and mom with a passion for cooking and baking. This is where you'll find my favorite homemade recipes, designed to help you make every day delicious! Read more....

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