Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce

Loaded with vegetables and the perfect seasoning blend, this hidden veggie pasta sauce is a delicious way to sneak in a few servings of veggies! The sauce requires little effort (just roast and blend) and can be batched and frozen to use on those days when you just don’t know what to make. This veggie pasta sauce is also the ideal use for any vegetables that are on their way out, wilted, or getting wrinkly—we love recipes that help with food waste around here!

When the height of the summer hits, the garden vegetables just keep coming. And when you’ve canned, frozen, and eaten what feels like about as many tomato cucumber salads as you can – then what? Then it’s hidden veggie pasta time, that’s what!

To come up with this recipe, I used some food scientist skills to think about how I could make the vegetables work smarter, not harder. Roasting was the answer!

Pasta sauces often include a small amount of sugar, but cooking the vegetables means you don’t need any extra sugar. Roasting vegetables brings out the natural sweetness and eliminates wrinkled skin. For my other tricks, you’ll have to keep reading to find out what else I did to hide the veggies in this sauce!

Why you’ll love it

• This is a hands-off recipe, meaning you just have to put the vegetables in a pan and then blend everything up.
• It uses up produce on its last leg and is stuck in the back of the fridge or pantry.
• It can be batched and frozen. Depending on how many vegetables you have, you can double or triple this recipe, freeze it, and then thaw it on a rainy day.

here’s what you’ll need

Really good pasta sauce has a great depth of flavor. And by that, I mean layers of flavor (like an onion—any Shrek fans? No?). To get these layers, we need a variety of vegetables and a good spice mix. The beauty of this is that you can use pretty much any vegetable on hand! Jump to the recipe card for the full quantities.

• Tomatoes: Most good pasta sauces need tomatoes. I prefer to use Roma tomatoes that are medium in size and sweeter in flavor. But you can use pretty much any kind of tomato.
• Button Mushrooms: These mushrooms are the most commonly available at the store and have the mildest flavor. Thanks to their savory umami notes, mushrooms add earthiness and are the trick to developing the base of the flavor layering.
• Red Bell Pepper: Red bell peppers are the sweetest of bell peppers, which helps the sauce bloom in flavor. Another pepper will work, but the final color may be less appealing.
• Red Onion: This adds tang and a little more sweetness, but you can also use white or yellow onion!
• Zucchini: Zucchini is super mild but adds loads of vitamins and fiber to the sauce. It’s also usually the most abundant garden vegetable.
• Garlic: Roasting the whole garlic bulb keeps it super simple! You can use as much or as little of the roasted garlic as you like.
• Olive Oil: A little goes a long way! This is just to help those vegetables roast and not dry out.
• Seasoning: I’m using Italian seasoning, but you could add anything you have on hand!
• Feta Cheese: Feta helps the sauce become creamy and adds salt. We love ingredients that are workhorses! If you don’t have feta, you may be able to find an appropriate substitute in our post on substitutes for feta cheese.
• Heavy Cream: Cream comes in handy when you are not simmering a pasta sauce for hours to develop flavor. It helps the sauce come together and provides that final layer of flavor.

How to make Veggie Pasta Sauce

To make this sauce, you need a roasting pan, a blender, and a few minutes. You can roast the vegetables on a parchment-lined baking sheet, but I’ve found that roasting directly on the pan develops a better flavor. Either way, you will have a tasty sauce! This is just an overview. Jump to the recipe card for the full instructions.

1. Prepare the vegetables by dicing, chopping, and tossing in oil and seasoning.
2. Roast everything until tender.
3. Make the pasta while the vegetables are cooking, and reserve that pasta water!
4. Blend all the vegetables with the feta, cream, and some pasta water.
5. Combine the smooth sauce with the pasta!

Why this Recipe Works

This recipe is almost foolproof but in case you weren’t sure, here are a few more reasons why this recipe works so well!

• Customizable with whatever vegetables you have on hand. Just keep in mind the color will change but the flavor will be delicious!
• Roasted vegetables bring all the flavor and then some! The heat helps enhance their natural sweetness so you get more flavor with less work and fewer ingredients.
• Versatile because it can be paired with gluten-free pasta, normal pasta, and ravioli, or enjoyed as soup. The possibilities are endless!

how to serve pasta sauce with hidden veggies

While the typical pairing for this sauce is pasta (and clearly, I enjoy that!), here are a few other unique ways to use pasta sauce.

• Easy Naan Pizza: Use it as a pizza sauce substitute.
• Easy Vegetarian Baked Ziti Recipe: Layer the sauce into this baked ziti.