My kids love my pasta sauce, and I mean the tomato filled bolognese type of pasta sauce. And I can actually get a lot of veggies in there. So, I love that they love my pasta sauce. However, my oldest is going through a “picky eater” phase, and any attempts of a “nomato” pasta sauce has been turned down and called the wrong sauce!! (insert the dramatics of a four-year-old here). To be fair to my cooking, both my youngest, my hubby and I have liked them all. It has been a relatively frustrating journey to get back our easy pasta night, meaning come home late, cook pasta and heat up a portion of pasta sauce (homemade and veggie filled) from the freezer. So, I decided that when we have (easy) pasta night, we will just have two different pasta sauces. One sauce for them, and one sauce for me. So now I have two kinds of pasta sauces in the freezer 🙂 Even though it sad that we can’t all eat the same sauce, I just remind myself that having easy and healthy food in the freezer is great for my stress levels (which is beneficial for my health issues). And I might have lost this particular battle with my picky eater, but I have not lost the war and I will continue to challenge him.
So now for the recipe, this is my current favorite pasta sauce. It is full of flavor and made with simple ingredients. Red Bell Pepper Sauce, sounds delish right. So for the people out there who can’t tolerate any veggies from the nightshade family, I’m sorry. But for the rest, who can, I hope you will enjoy this recipe 🙂 My recipe is adapted from a recipe by the Vegan 8, link to her recipe here.
You need to start with roasting the bell peppers. Line a baking tray with parchment paper, place the bell pepper on the paper (whole, but washed). Put them in the oven and roast till the skin comes loose and starts to brown/blacken. It takes about 20-30 minutes. Take them out, put them in a container with a lid, and let them cool down for a bit. Placing them in a closed container, helps the skin loosen. Once they have cooled so much that you can handle them with your hands, peel of the skin, and get rid of the stem and seeds. I usually do all of this in the container, they cooled down in. I do this to not lose all the liquid which is released from the bell peppers. There is so much flavor in that liquid, so try to save it.
While the bell peppers are cooking away in the oven and cooling down, steam the cauliflower. You don’t need that much cauliflower for this recipe, but I usually just prepare a whole head. What I don’t use in the sauce we eat as extra veggies together with dinner (or pre-dinner, which in my experience is the best time to get veggies in (my) kids). What you don’t eat, you can freeze down and use in smoothies another day. Cauliflower in smoothies is a great trick (gives it a creamy texture) I learned from this lovely lady: Fiona Long (aka low_histamine_learning) whom I follow on instagram. I shared a smoothie recipe with cauliflower two weeks ago, click here to check it out.
Add the bell peppers and the liquid to a blender or food processor, together with the steamed cauliflower and the other ingredients, except for the basil. Blend till you get a smooth sauce. Serve with freshly cooked pasta or some sautéed veggies and sprinkle with a bit of freshly sliced basil and a few extra pine nuts. I used pasta made from peas, to get the protein count up a bit. Added bonus with pea pasta is that it is grain free. Enjoy you guys 🙂
PrintRed Bell Pepper Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 40 min
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Creamy vegan red bell pepper and cauliflower sauce. Perfect for pasta or sautéed veggies.
Ingredients
- 2 big bell peppers (ca. 500 g, with stem and everything)
- 150 g cauliflower (steamed)
- 1 very small red onion (ca. 20 g)
- ¼ cup pine nuts (40 g)
- Ca. ¾ cup water (1/4 cup liquid from the roasted bell peppers, and ½ cup of boiling water)
- 1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- ½ tsp (sea)salt
Garnish:
- a handful of basil, finely sliced
- A little extra pine nuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 °C (390 °F).
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper, place the bell pepper on the paper (whole, but washed). Put them in the oven and roast till the skin comes loose and starts to brown/blacken, about 20-30 minutes.
- While the bell peppers are cooking away in the oven, steam the cauliflower.
- When the bell peppers are done, take them out of the oven and place them in a container with a lid. Let them cool down for a bit. Placing them in a closed container, helps the skin loosen. Once they have cooled so much that you can handle them with your hands, peel of the skin, and get rid of the stem and seeds. I usually do all of this in the container, they cooled down in. I do this to not lose all the liquid which is released from the bell peppers. There is so much flavor in that liquid, so try to save it.
- Add the bell peppers and the liquid you saved to a blender or food processor, together with the steamed cauliflower and the other ingredients, except for the basil. Blend till you get a smooth sauce.
- Serve with freshly cooked pasta or some sautéed veggies. sprinkle a few pine nuts and some finely sliced basil on top. Enjoy you guys 🙂 I used pasta made from peas, to get the protein count up a bit. Added bonus with pea pasta is that it is grain free. The nutrition data is calculated on one portion out of four (no pasta included).
Notes
The sauce thickens a bit after cooling down. When you reheat it, you can add a little extra boiling water till it gets the texture you like again.
Helen says
Have you tried freezing this? Did it hold up?
thanks
taniasurrow says
Hi Helen 🙂
Yes I have tried freezing. It gets a bit thick, so when you heat it up add a bit of extra water.
I hope this answered your question,
Greetings,
Tania
Christi says
Do you think this would be ok leaving out the pine nuts? I can’t have any nuts at all. Thanks! So excited to have found your site and can’t wait to make some of these low histamine recipes! Thank you so much for sharing!
taniasurrow says
Hi Christi,
Sure you van leave out the pine nuts, the sauce will be slightly less thick though.
Tania