I’m here to share one of the most amazing sauces ever. This hidden veggie sauce is my favorite. It packs in tons of nutrients, is filling, easy, and makes your house smell amazing. I also love how versatile it is. We of course put this hidden veggie sauce on pasta but it’s also been a pretzel dip and the base for tortilla bites (recipe coming soon).

I will say, the post blender veggies aren’t the most attractive in the world, but man does it make it easy. No need to spend an hour finely chopping veggies. Just add everything to the blender and voila. You could just as easily use a food processor too. Depending on how chunky you like your sauce, you can even leave the veggies larger and just cook everything with the beef and oil a bit longer. I’m one that enjoys these veggies pulverized. No chunks, please.

The veggie mix is also quite flexible. We had zucchini in the fridge once that needed to be used, so I added it to this sauce. I’ve used spring mix instead of baby spinach. It can be fresh or frozen too. I always stick the container of greens in the freezer if we don’t get to it before it’s going to go bad so we can use the greens for smoothies, muffins, or this hidden veggie sauce. Any color pepper will do; it certainly doesn’t have to be red. Red peppers are my favorite to eat plain, so I often hide the far less delicious green pepper in this sauce. This hidden veggie sauce can hide a multitude of veggies. It’s one of my go-to fridge clean out meals to avoid wasting veggies.

This recipe should yield three to four mason jars worth of sauce. We usually leave one out and freeze the rest. If we don’t freeze it right away, the sauce quickly disappears in the form of late night snacks with pretzel chips. While this isn’t the worst snack in the world, I like to try to have the sauce last multiple meals to help our budget and schedule. Hence, right to the freezer for safety!

This hidden veggie sauce is an easy way to work lots of vegetables into a meal. We usually eat it on top of brown rice quinoa pasta to up the protein too. If you make it, be sure to tag ollergy on social media and let me know what you think!

Print Recipe

meat sauce with hidden veggies

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

45 min

Servings

quarts

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 T olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 carrots - chopped
• 3 handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 large celery stalk - chopped
• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper - chopped
• 50 oz canned whole tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion - chopped
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 T coconut sugar
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder

Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 45 min Servings quarts Ingredients 1 lb ground beef 1 T olive oil 3 cloves garlic 2 carrots - chopped 3 handfuls of baby spinach 1 large celery stalk - chopped 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes 1 red bell pepper - chopped 50 oz canned whole tomatoes 1 yellow onion - chopped 1 tsp italian seasoning 1 bay leaf 2 T coconut sugar 2 tsp onion powder 2 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

1. In large saucepan, brown beef in oil
2. Put veggies and garlic in food processor, puree until smooth. Add to beef. Cook until most liquid is gone.
3. In food processor, blend whole tomatoes. Add to sauce pan.
4. Add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, garlic and onion powder, and sugar to sauce pan. Stir, and simmer partially covered for at least 30 minutes.