Hidden Veggie Meat Sauce My Kids Actually Love | Mediterranean Dinner 3 Ways

If you’ve got picky eaters in the house (hello, teenagers), this Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce might just be your new secret weapon. It looks and tastes like a silky marinara, but it’s secretly packed with carrots, zucchini, bell peppers, and onions! All blended until smooth so no one can pick them out. My kids truly don’t notice, and that makes it a win in my book.

What I love most about this sauce is its versatility. I make one big batch, and suddenly I’ve got completely different meals ready to go. It’s like meal prepping without the monotony. In this video, I serve this sauce over spaghetti, make stuffed bell peppers with it and make a tasty rice bowl with a runny egg on top.

Get full recipe with option to print, adjust servings, or convert to metrics here: https://lolajayyum.com/hidden-veggie-pasta-sauce/

Why I switched my family over to the Mediterranean diet: https://youtu.be/WUADS4ryEkU

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:23 prepare the veggies
1:26 make the sauce
3:30 serve over spaghetti
4:01 stuffed bell peppers
4:42 rice bowl with runny egg

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, registered dietitian, or medical professional. The information shared on this channel is for informational and educational purposes only and is based on my personal experiences, research, and opinions. It should not be considered medical advice or a substitute for professional consultation, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with your physician or a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your diet, lifestyle, or health routine. Reliance on any information provided by this channel is solely at your own risk.

Since recently switching my family over to the Mediterranean diet, I’ve been trying to find creative ways to make meals healthy, kid approved, and delicious. This is my secret weapon for a family dinner. It’s a silky marinara that’s secretly loaded with veggies. I blend them smooth in my blender so even my teens don’t know they’re in there. And the best part is, one sauce and it becomes three different meals. I’ll show you how to do that at the end. I’m starting with a large red pepper, but you can do an orange or yellow. Red is what I had on hand. You can use all of the red pepper minus the seeds. I’ve also got one whole onion, a white onion, but you’re welcome to use yellow onion as well. Then we’ve got some zucchini that I’m just going to roughly chop and add that in, as well as two carrots. I have two medium carrots, but if you have small ones, you can do three. And just put that in the blender and you’ll mix it until it’s nice and blended and smooth. There’ll be no way to tell that these are in the sauce if you do it correctly. You want a nice and smooth consistency and as you cook it, it’ll just melt into the sauce. You’ve got to activate your glutes. Activate your glutes. Yeah, so you don’t fall. Um, something is wrong. And if you don’t have a Vitamix or like a mixer, a food processor, you could always just grate them and then just dice them or mince them really fine. It’ll just take a little longer for them to soften, but it’ll work. To a large skillet on medium high heat, add in some olive oil and then I’m adding in some lean ground beef and lean ground turkey, though you can pick one or the other if that’s what you prefer. And you want to spread it in an even layer just so that it gets some nice brown bits and some caramelization. And then make sure to just break apart any of the large pieces. We’re going to add in our tomato paste, about two tablespoons. I will just cook this down until it darkens. It’s going to add some death like not death. Add some depth like a slow cooked sauce… death! Add in the crushed garlic and you’re going to saute this for about 30 seconds until fragrant. And you want to be careful because garlic does burn fast, which is why I’m adding it after the meat. And for my seasonings, I’ve got oregano, basil, smoked paprika, chili flakes, onion and garlic powder and a little salt and pepper. I just added a little bit of salt because the bouillon that I’m going to add later has more salt in it. And then I’m adding in my crushed tomatoes and giving that a really good stir. And then you add in your veggies. You want to make sure to blend this correctly. And then you’re going to top it with some chicken broth or vegetable broth. And for my chicken broth, I just like to take low sodium chicken bouillon and I just dissolve it in water. And we’re going to go ahead and top this with one fresh bay leaf and then roughly chopping some basil to give it some extra flavor. I’m just going to cover it and we’ll just let this simmer for about 20 minutes on medium low. And it’s ready. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little more broth. If it’s too thin, you just simmer it longer. 20 minutes of gentle simmering is definitely enough to bring out all these flavors and look at that. And I’ve got some whole wheat spaghetti. You can do fusilli. You can do penne. And I’m just going to like spoon some of the sauce right on top. As little as (or) as much as you want. Top it with some parmigiano reggiano or some pecorino romano. And then I like to put some basil just to make it pretty. And let’s dig in. And next up is stuffed peppers over some garlic yogurt sauce, which is super easy to make. Just yogurt, garlic, salt, pepper, a little Aleppo pepper. And the peppers you just bake in the oven for 15 minutes. You add in the meat sauce, bake them for another 15 minutes and they’re ready to go. Just going to top with a little parsley. Put it over that yogurt sauce and dig in. It’s super easy. It’s super quick and it tastes amazing. Can’t wait to eat this. That’s so good. Last but not least, who doesn’t love a really good bowl? I just put in my meat sauce over some brown rice or some quinoa or cauliflower rice with an over easy egg, a little basil and dig in. The egg is nice and runny. You’ve got the meat sauce, the basil. It’s delicious. If you enjoy simple and easy Mediterranean recipes, don’t forget to comment, share and like. It really helps my channel out. Bon appetit.