I make a lot of meals where I hide vegetables within the sauce, in order to make sure my boys (and that includes their daddy!) get the nutritional benefits they need without any “me not like that mummy” comments/ ‘turned up nose’ looks!
So I thought I would share some with you which work with my family, and you never know might help get yours to eat more veg too, if yours don’t already of course!
Now I don’t wish to tell anyone ‘how to suck eggs’ here, but one really quick and easy way to get them to eat an assortment of healthy veg is to simply roast some and then several different meals can be made.
For example:
Take
an assortment of vegetables eg. 1 butternut squash, 2 courgettes, 3 peppers, 2 onions, 8 large tomatoes
Prepare
them and chop them into medium same sized pieces
Add
a few cloves of garlic, some basil and a good glug of olive oil
Roast in the oven at 180oC (fan oven) for about 40 minutes
Obviously, if you and your family will eat them like this then great! However, as I mentioned earlier the name of the game in my house is ‘hidden’ vegetables!
Allow to cool slightly, then blend until a thick sauce is created (you may wish to add some black pepper). The colour of the sauce is great – really vibrant and it’s just full of such goodness 🙂
This will make a great pasta sauce which you can leave as vegetarian and maybe add some cheese. Or you can add some meatballs or another meat (chicken, ham, bacon, sausage) to make a meaty pasta dish (you may wish to season this sauce with extra salt or a little sugar to balance the flavour of the sauce – do what you think taste best as each vegetable has a different flavour).
I have also used this as a pizza sauce in place of the more traditional tomato sauce you might usually use for the base.
To make this into a soup, simply add about 400ml (depending on how thick/thin you like your soup) of chicken or vegetable stock and blend again. Re- heat gently when ready to eat.
Simples!
I am sure many of you already do this yourselves so apologies for telling you things you already know. BUT if you haven’t and you don’t, then why not give it a go!
It works with my children!
Thank you xx
This is fab, what a great idea and so versatile. x
I read this post the other day and thought that it was so clever! I hide pureed broccoli in Bolognese sauce. Tons of it. Makes the sauce slightly darker and thicker but it actually improves the taste somehow
I’ve had this post sitting in my inbox for days so that I would remember to come back and comment. I will definitely be giving this a try. Not that my little guy is a fussy pants with veggies, but because it seems so easy and healthy. Pasta with tomato based sauces is his favourite, I generally just chuck som chopped up veg in the sauce, but if I use this sauce first it will be like a vegetable double whammy. X