Looking for a healthy and delicious pasta sauce recipe? This garden veggie homemade marinara sauce is packed with flavorful vegetables and can be made in under 30 minutes. Watch the video tutorial and try it out tonight!
Every kid loves pizza, many love spaghetti so a marinara sauce is a great way to get your children to enjoy more veggies. Try vegetarian marinara sauce!
I’ve never been a big fan of sneaking veggies into food as I’d rather my kids learn to love vegetables, but I see nothing wrong with packing something full of them in an easy to eat way like vegetarian spaghetti sauce.
What is Sautéing?
The word sauté (pronounced “saw-TAY”) refers to a form of dry-heat cooking that uses a hot pan and a small amount of fat to cook the food.
Why Sauté?
There’s only one step that I insist on for this entire recipe, please make sure you take a moment to sauté the vegetables before making the sauce. Think of it like corn or grilled corn. Isn’t grilled corn so much more delicious? Same thing with sautéing vegetables for a dish, the heat breaks them down and really brings out the flavor.
I mean, it’s like eating raw carrots with your roast at Sunday dinner or nice and caramelized carrots from baking in the pan with that beefy babe.
I think that’s one of my favorite tips about cooking. To some it may seem obvious but to a large portion of the public something like sautéing everything versus just throwing it all in a pot to simmer may not be.
Ingredients for Vegetable Marinara Sauce
This sauce really doesn’t need much fuss either. A bunch of veggies, a little cheese and a dollop of butter and you’re good to go. The secret is a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I don’t know why it works but it does. I’ll wait for America’s Test Kitchen to figure that one out. Here is the ingredients list:
- Olive Oil
- Herbs and Seasonings: Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Kosher Salt, Fresh Basil Leaves, Dried Oregano and Black Pepper
- Vegetables: Garlic, Zucchini, Carrot, Baby Bella Mushrooms, Red Bell Pepper, Yellow Bell Pepper, Orange Bell Pepper and Crushed Tomatoes
- Tomato Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Parmesan Cheese
- Balsamic Vinegar
The measurements and details for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.
How to Make Homemade Marinara Sauce
Honestly, the most time consuming part of this chopping all the veggies before sautéing them. After that, it’s a total breeze! Here are all the steps:
- Sauté: Place a dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat and add the olive. Let it heat up until it’s shimmering. Then add the garlic and crush red pepper. Stir for about a mi