Supercharged Tomato Pasta Sauce

If you have fussy eaters, here’s a super-star recipe! This smooth pasta sauce packs a hidden punch with seven vegetables blended inside, as well as white beans for added protein and fibre. Try serving this wonderful tomato sauce with red lentil pasta for an extra boost of protein and fibre.
Mixing things up like this is a brilliant way for kids to eat a wide range of veg and it ticks the box for “eating the rainbow” in just one meal. Oregano and garlic are natural antimicrobials that help to support a healthy balance of gut flora. The protein, fibre and olive oil should satiate kids better than a bought pasta sauce and in turn this should help with their blood sugar balance.
This recipe makes a lovely big batch of tomato pasta sauce, so you can “cook-once-eat-twice”.
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Supercharged Tomato Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Red Onion
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Carrots
- 1 stick Celery
- 1 Courgette (small)
- 1/4 Butternut Squash
- 1 Red Pepper
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil (extra virgin if possible)
- 200 g Cannellini Beans (rinsed and drained)
- 800 g Tomato (tinned)
- 1 tbsp Oregano (dried or fresh – this is optional)
- Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Dice the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, courgette, butternut squash and red pepper into small squares.
- Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over a low to medium heat. Add all the chopped vegetables and gently cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened.
- Add the drained beans, tomatoes and oregano. Simmer for 40 minutes, until everything is cooked through.
- Blend thoroughly, until completely smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with your pasta of choice.
- Finally drizzle with the second tablespoon of olive oil to make the meal more satiating and to add some additional antioxidants.
Notes
- For very fussy eaters start with 50g of white beans and build up by 50g per batch so by the fourth batch they should be used to the thicker consistency of the sauce.
- To supercharge this meal further I recommend you try red lentil pasta, cooked according to the pack instructions. Then grate on cheddar or parmesan cheese.
- Red lentil pasta is now freely available in supermarkets and online. For toddlers and babies try this Little Pasta Organics Red Lentil Dinosaur Pasta. Allow 30-40g pasta per child, and 70-80g pasta per adult.
- You can swap Cannellini beans to any other tinned white beans such as butter beans or haricot beans. You can also use flageolet beans which are a light green bean and are highly digestible.
- Oregano can be replaced by fresh basil or mixed Mediterranean or Italian herbs.
- This recipe makes a large batch that feeds at least eight people, so that you can store smaller portions. I recommend you store this sauce in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Can you suggest any alternative to onion and garlic for a child on low fodmap diet? Or shall I just leave out completely?
You could try some fresh fennel and some garlic oil (which is low FODMAP)
My kids always have a basic tomato sauce (tinned toms with a dash of balsamic and extra Virgin olive oil) so I added some of the veg listed here and blized it up. They ate it with no questions asked, yay! I made the full version for my husband and we enjoyed it with gnocchi. One happy mum!