This recipe is packed full of veggies that many kids may not naturally want to eat: mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, and carrots (although most kids love carrots in any form). The veggies are first roasted with a bit of salt and pepper to bring out their sweet flavor, and then pureed with tomatoes and spices to create a veggie-packed spaghetti sauce. And what kid doesn’t love spaghetti sauce?!
1/2cupfresh basilloosely packed and finely chopped
1tspdried oregano
1/2cupgrated parmesan cheese
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Cut into uniform size the carrots, zucchini, pepper, and onion. Add the vegetables to a large, rimmed baking sheet. I like to line my baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean-up. Add the whole garlic cloves to the pan.
Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper evenly over the veggies. Mix the vegetables with your hands to coat evenly with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Roast the vegetables for 25 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven, and add the mushrooms. Stir the mushrooms with the roasted vegetables. Roast the vegetables for an additional 20-25 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft.
Add the vegetables to a large Dutch oven along with the can of tomatoes (and juice). Use an immersion blender to blend the veggies and tomatoes together.
Add the tomato paste, vegetable broth, fresh basil, oregano, and ½ teaspoon of salt to the pureed veggies and tomatoes. Simmer the sauce for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Before serving, stir in the parmesan cheese.
Serve the sauce over spaghetti noodles or zucchini noodles.
This recipe makes a ton of sauce (enough to fill a 3 quart Dutch oven). This a great sauce to make on the weekend and enjoy throughout the week for lunch or dinner. Store the sauce in an air-tight in the fridge for about 4 days, or in the freezer for about 3-4 months. If you're purposely making the sauce to freeze for later, I recommend adding the cheese after defrosting and reheating.