Pasta is definitely a universal favourite when it comes to the kids in my daycare so I love trying out different healthy pasta sauce recipes to get as much nutrition into our lunch as possible.
This is my favourite bolognese recipe, which is a flavourful meat sauce with tons of vegetables!
I’ll be honest, my first inclination when I think “pasta lunch” is to simply grab a jar of pesto and call it a day. But I am trying to put in a bit more effort even with the quick lunches to make them a bit more nutritionally dense.
Using a healthy pasta sauce recipe elevates a simple pasta lunch to a filling meal that you can feel proud of, and because it’s pasta, there is a great opportunity to sneak some healthy ingredients into the sauce that the kids might not normally be willing to eat. I don’t think I’ve ever had a child snub a bowl of pasta no matter what was in the sauce!
Bolognese is a meat-based pasta sauce that originated in Italy, but it has been changed so much since then that there really isn’t one right way to make a bolognese. The original version didn’t even use tomatoes (or likely beef) so feel free to adapt this recipe to whatever ingredients your family prefers.
You can even use taco spices, or replace the beef with chicken – we’ve even done like Jamie Oliver and used rabbit! Whatever will encourage your children to eat this hearty meal works! We often use half beef and half pork, or half beef and half ethically-raised veal.
Healthy Pasta Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
I don’t mind using a pre-made sauce in this recipe, however whipping up my own quick blender sauce to add to the meat and vegetables allows me to control the consistency and sodium of the sauce.
I’ve also had luck making this as a one-pot meal, adding the water and noodles directly to the pan after browning the beef, but I much prefer making the pasta separately and then adding it in – it’s just a little more reliable and I like the texture of the sauce better without the adding water (which doesn’t all cook away).
Check out our other Vegetable Recipes here:
Tara @ Simple Food 365 says
I love this recipe! Any opportunity to fit more veggies into my kids’ diets, the better!
Rebecca says
This looks so yummy and easy to make! I am going to pin it for later! Rebecca