Easy Vegetable Marinara Sauce

 This Easy Vegetable Marinara Sauce recipe is a great way to use all those fresh veggies from your garden! Not into canning? No worries, this sauce can be frozen as well! This sauce is easy to make using a few staple ingredients you may already have on hand! Perfectly thick and packed with flavor, you’ll be ditching that store bought pasta sauce! 

Ingredients

This homemade vegetable marinara sauce takes a few ingredients you may already have on hand. Here’s what you’ll need and how to prep for this recipe:

• Extra virgin olive oil– The chopped veggies are sautéed to start the sauce (some use a bit of butter in addition, if you’re looking for something a bit more fatty or rich).
• Onions– 1 medium sized onion, I used a spanish onion. It’s a good idea to chop the onions as small as you can get them so they’re not too chunky.
• Garlic– Can’t have a good Italian tomato sauce without a bit of fresh garlic. About 3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced.
• Carrots and Celery- While carrots are not a traditional ingredient for spaghetti sauce or pasta sauce, they are the secret ingredient here that helps thicken the tomato sauce while also adding natural sweetness. I use 3 carrots (smaller carrots are okay to use) and 3 celery stalks. Be sure to finely grate the carrots using a small food processor or a grater
• Canned Tomatoes- I use a large 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes here. It is equivalent to 10 Roma Tomatoes.
• Fresh herbs- Torn basil and chopped fresh parsley complete the Italian flavors for this marinara pasta sauce. Remember if you don’t have fresh use dried instead.

How to make Vegetable Marinara Sauce Step by Step

1. Gently cook the onion, carrot, celery, and parsley: Heat olive oil in a large wide skillet on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and parsley.
2. Add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds

3. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, salt, pepper, then simmer: Add the tomatoes, including the juice and shredding them with spoon. Add the tomato paste and the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Bring to a low simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook, uncovered until thickened, about 10 minutes.

how long does vegetable marinara sauce?

This vegetarian marinara sauce will keep well in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.

First, be sure the sauce is fully cooled. Transfer to a tight-lid glass container or glass jar to refrigerate.

can you freeze? 

I often make a few batches of this marinara sauce to keep in the freezer for later use.

To freeze pasta sauce, again be sure it is cooled completely. Transfer to freezer-safe containers, leaving enough room for the sauce to expand as it freezes. Cover tightly and be sure to label the container clearly with content and date.

Thaw the sauce in the fridge overnight. Warm up over medium heat, stirring as needed.

Frequently asked questions

what is the difference between marinara and sauce – Marinara can be left chunky; the the finished sauce texture is wet, and the taste is that of fresh tomatoes.

Tomato sauce, on the other hand, requires a little extra effort, starting with pureed tomatoes seasoned with onion, carrot, celery, and bay leaf, and left to simmer until thickened and rich in flavor.

is marinara sauce and pizza sauce the same – Similar but not the same. Pizza sauce is thicker in consistency than marinara sauce because it has more liquid in consistency . Pizza sauce is usually cooked on a pizza crust, whereas marinara sauce is served as a dip or topping.

Use your homemade sauce in the following

• Eggplant parmesan
• parmesan crusted turkey meatballs
• Zucchini lasagna
• Stuffed Spaghetti Squash