Do you know what all clever mums have in common?
No matter how busy our every day gets, we always, always find time to sneak veggies into our meal preps. Yes, we all have superpowers, but none as great as veg-stealth.
Let’s shine the kitchen spotlight on this uber-healthy Veggilicious Tomato Paste.
This recipe is a good way to give kids their vegetables, as they have no idea how much they are eating (high five, mums)! And because we roasted the vegetables before blitzing, the natural sweetness from the produce is elevated. Leaving us with a nice sweetness, mixed in with the bright zesty goodness of tomatoes.
The tiny tots in the WMBT HQ happily served as cute taste testers to ensure that this easy recipe is so scrumptious that even the pickiest eaters will approve. The best part is that it stands on its own as a simple sauce for any pasta or pizza dish, but you can also add it to other recipes to level up any meal. That’s an awesome lunch or dinner the whole family will love!
You Will Need
- Oven
- Sheet Pan or Baking Tray
- Immersion Blender or Food Processor
-
Silicone Baking Moulds
This healthy dinner idea is made using a basic sheet pan. Any durable one that’s easy to clean will do the trick!
Before we transfer this Veggilicious Tomato Paste into freezer-safe containers, we need to blitz our ingredients until smooth. You can go all fancy with an immersion blender, but a food processor or blender can give you the same yummy results.
The real star of the show is our WMBT freeze & bake poddies. The little silicone moulds just make everything more adorable and convenient, too!
Here’s what we love about it. It has 25 perfectly portioned, snack-sized pods which just makes life so much easier for busy mums! We’re leaving out the guesswork so every meal prep is like clockwork --- no wasted effort, and no leftovers taking up space in your fridge and freezer.
When hungry mouths need to be fed, simply pop out 2-3 poddies for an amazingly quick meal. Then warm and pour over some pasta for a nutritious, delicious culinary treat in no time!
A clever little time-saver that gives you about a dozen meals, easy!
The Wonderful World of Roasted Veggies
Roasted vegetables really are a snap to make. You don’t have to measure anything and the recipe is hard to mess up! When some vegetables are out of season, you can pretty much replace them with what’s on hand. Just pick your favourites or whatever is in season at the market.
Some of the best vegetables to use as alternatives include broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts.
Everything we have on our list is pretty much available everywhere. If you’re unfamiliar with Passata, it’s simply sieved tomatoes with a smooth, sauce-like consistency. It’s pureed, strained tomatoes usually sold in bottles in any supermarket.
Now, this Veggilicious Tomato Paste recipe is already fabulous on its own, especially paired with a bowl of shaped pasta. But there are other great ways to enjoy this dining delight.
You can use it as a sauce for baked chicken and fish, or even as a filling for lasagna. Top it with loads of cheese and you are golden!
This recipe also blends well with Bolognese and can be used as an alternative to pizza sauce for a veggie-loaded version of pizza and pasta night.
Why not veggiefy snack time too? Use this tomato paste as a dip for pita chips or grilled cheese sandwiches.
Get the Kids Involved
It doesn’t take much to get this healthy meal prep happening, so it’s also a fun activity for your kids to get involved in! It’s a great recipe to let tiny hands help, especially for washing the veggies! They’ll have a blast naming them too!
Makes 25 Mini Poddies (1L) | Prep 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 small eggplant
- 1 small zucchini
- 2 small carrots
- half a red capsicum
- half a small pumpkin
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion
- 250 ml (1 cup) passata
- 1 tbsp vegetable stock concentrate
Method
Preheat oven to 160 C and prepare a baking tray.
Cut all the vegetables, except the onion, into small chunks and place on baking tray. Drizzle with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil and toss vegetables to ensure they are coated. Place tray in oven and roast for 45 minutes or until tender and slightly golden.
Towards the end of the roasting time, finely dice the onion and sauté in 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until soft and translucent.
Remove roasted vegetables from oven and transfer to the pan with the onions.
Add the passata and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil over a medium heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Allow to cool slightly then transfer to We Might Be Tiny Mini Poddies and place in the freezer. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Pop out a Mini Poddie to add extra flavour and veggilicious goodness to sauces such as bolognaise or pizza bases. Also delicious as a simple pasta sauce.
And guess what mums, if you like this recipe, you will enjoy the other eight included in WMBT’s soon-to-be-released booklet, "Tiny Mid Week Hacks". Where you’ll find many different ways to rock kitchen preps for your family. So be sure to check that one out, too!
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