I am all about store bought spaghetti sauce and there are a lot of great options. But with this recipe you make one mess and have a meal, leftovers, and enough to share with friends, plus the bonus of added veggies! Win.Win.Win. I always say if you are going to make a mess, make it count!
An old recipe handed down from generation to generation that I doubled and added my own special twist. This recipe will not let you down!
Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground of meat of choice
1 large sweet onion
4 garlic cloves (roughly 4 tsp if using pre-minced)
4-5 stalks of celery
12 oz package of broccoli florets (or 2 small heads) – optional veggie add in.
1, 15 oz can of tomato sauce
12 oz of tomato paste (2 6oz cans)
2, 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (fire roasted if available)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon black pepper (roughly)
4 teaspoons of dried oregano
6 teaspoons of coconut sugar (or sugar of choice)
Really large pot
Directions:
Dice up on onion, celery and garlic cloves.
Add 2 tbsp of olive oil, diced onion and celery first with 1 tsp salt to pot over medium-high heat.
Cook veggies stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
Add minced garlic to the pot and simmer a few more minutes.
Add meat to pot, 1 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp (roughly) of black pepper.
Stirring occasionally cook meat unit browned about 5 minutes (I like to mix one lb of beef and 1 lb of turkey).
While veggies and meat is cooking open cans of tomatoes.
After meat has browned add, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste.
Lower heat to medium and add in 4 tsp oregano, 6 tsp sugar, remaining 1 tsp salt and pepper.
Stir to incorporate.
Set timer for 30 minutes, allow sauce to simmer on medium to medium-low.
If using, while pot is simmering use a sharp knife cut head of broccoli florets off and chop until you get broccoli sprinkles.
Add optional sprinkles to the pot and allow sauce simmer for the remainder of the cook time.
Broccoli needs around 15 minutes to cook down.
Pot does not need to be watched but come back occasionally to stir.
If eating immediately go ahead and bring a pot of water to boil and cook noodles as sauce is simmering.
Serve sauce over your favorite pasta and enjoy.
Serving Size:
This recipe makes roughly 12 cups of spaghetti sauce. That’s a lot!
I recommend 3 cups of sauce for every 8 ounces of pasta. Traditional pasta typically comes in 16 oz bags, protein plant based pastas like chick pea or some of the other varieties often come in 8 oz. My family of 4 (two bigs and two still growing) will eat 3 cups of sauce with 8 oz pasta as one family meal for your reference.
Leftovers (there will be some):
Sauce will stay fresh for 4-5 days in the fridge. You can freeze what you will not use in ziplock freezer bag for quick family night meal in the future. Double and date the freezer bag, use within a couple of months month of freezing, This is a great meal to share with friends.
Good Tips:
Chop up the veggies real small if you do not want them to be detected, they will naturally cook down with the sauce. What is even better is to ask for help in the kitchen. Cook with your kids and talk about the benefits these veggies add to our bodies. My kids like to say, “mom we can still see the broccoli, but we cannot taste it.” The longer you simmer (up to 45 minutes) the sauce the more the veggies will be undetected. You can absolutely make this same recipe without the broccoli sprinkles if you wish! But give it a try and have your kids help you make it!
Fresh garlic is sold in heads. Which have a bulb-like appearance and a thin white paperer outer covering. The individual cloves are what you find once you open up the head of garlic. Each clove will be a slightly different size but on average measure out to be a teaspoon of minced garlic each. You can use the flat edge of a knife to smash the cloves, then peel them with your hands and then dice them up. Many grocery stores will have pre-minced garlic in a jar or the freezer section. There are typically some preservatives included but can be for a great short cut when needed.
DO NOT throw out the ends of the broccoli stems not called for in the sauce. First of all, you could certainly chop the stems up with the celery/onion and add them to the recipe. But if you do not want to do that while the sauce is simmering and you still have a mess, go a head and chop up the remaining stems left behind after adding the broccoli sprinkles. Save them in an air tight container in the fridge (up to a week depending on previous shelf life) and use them on top of salads. You could also add them to a stir-fry.
Meat or Not: I recommend ground turkey or chicken because it doesn’t have the grease of red meat. You can certainly use whatever you have on hand or that’s on sale, you may need to drain if using beef. This is what I call a veggie forward meal meaning there is meat but veggies are the star. Yes, you can make it meatless, just add a few extra veggies (like the broccoli stems) to bulk up the sauce
The sugar really cuts the acidity and I feel is needed. I use coconut sugar opposed to white sugar. Either would work great.
MAKE this for your loved ones, take it to friends. Come back and tell me what you think.
Live well friends,
Christy
