Very Veggie Pasta Sauce

Hey, Y'all!!  In this post I thought I'd talk about the different ways you can spice up your regular old pasta sauce and make it a little more refreshing.  I don't try and re-invent the wheel when it comes to pasta sauce, but I do like to make it a little more exciting than the regular old store bought kinds that are available. 
 
My husband grew up eating spaghetti every week as a kid because it was very economical for a large family.  I, on the other hand, can eat pasta every day and never grow tired of it.  This made it difficult for me to enjoy pasta without my husband complaining.  As I looked in my basket one weekend, I decided to 'spice up' my sauce and threw in some squash, carrots, zucchini, and cucumber.  While this sauce started out as an experiment, it ended up being a dish that my family loved!  I have varied the ingredients many times - adding kale, onion, collard greens, and bell peppers to name a few,  with great results.  This sauce can contain meat if you like, or it can remain meatless.

 

 

 VERY VEGGIE PASTA SAUCE (with or without meat)

1 cup frozen broccoli (I used the broccoli I froze from a recent add-on basket purchase)
1 half of a large yellow onion, about 1 cup, chopped
1 large, peeled cucumber, grated
1 large peeled carrot, grated
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 tsp fresh thyme, stems removed
1 large jar of your preferred pasta sauce, I used a 45 oz jar of plain, or traditional sauce
2 Tbs vegetable oil
Cooked pasta of your choice
*1 lb ground beef, veal, pork optional
* alternate/additional ingredients could be: squash, bell peppers, zucchini, kale, collard greens, spinach, mushrooms, etc...

On medium heat, place oil and frozen broccoli in pan and thaw broccoli.  (If you were using meat, you would brown the meat in the oil first along with the frozen broccoli while it thaws).  Add remaining veggies and break up broccoli into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon when soft. Cook until veggies are soft.  Add in spaghetti sauce and cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes to let ingredients come together.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour over cooked pasta and serve.
These ingredients can be prepped the night before in order to save time cooking the sauce.


*ON A SIDE NOTE:  Adding carrots to your sauce can help reduce the acidity the tomato sauce would normally contain.  You can add chunks of carrots and remove them when the sauce is done cooking, or you can shred them up and leave them in.

So the next time you want to avoid that "plain old spaghetti", stop and look at what you have that can spice it up and make it more exciting.  You'll not regret it!