Name: Veggie Heavy Pizza Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 2 cups
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper; 1 carrot; 1 stalk celery; 1 onion; 2 cloves garlic; 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; 2 cans diced tomatoes

If you're the parent of a picky or challenging eater, this Veggie Heavy Pizza Sauce is for you. It's basically a variety of cooked and pureed vegetables, but it tastes just like the sauce you get in your favorite pizzeria. If you’re the parent of a picky or challenging eater, this Veggie Heavy Pizza Sauce is for you. It’s basically a variety of cooked and pureed vegetables, but it tastes just like the sauce you get in your favorite pizzeria. While it is right at home on top of a crisp pizza dough, it’s also perfect on pasta, rice or even quinoa. I find it so versatile in fact, that I usually make a double batch and freeze what I don’t need so I can easily reheat it for dinner next week. Or next month.

Other

45 m

Italian

Weelicious

March 17, 2026

Weelicious.com

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Veggie Heavy Pizza Sauce

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Ingredients

Warning0 allergens identified

Instructions

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Instructions

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the bell peppers, carrots, celery, onions, garlic and salt. Saute until veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly.

Add the tomatoes, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, puree with an immersion hand blender (or in a regular blender) until almost smooth.

Return sauce to the heat and simmer until thick, 10-20 minutes. The longer you simmer this sauce the thicker and more flavorful it will become. You can simmer up to 2 hours.

Nutrition

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Tips & Tricks (5)

Caramelize Your Aromatics 🧅
Cook the diced onions, celery, and carrots slowly over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until golden and sweet before adding garlic—this builds a rich flavor foundation that mimics traditional pizzeria sauce depth.
Brighten with Bell Pepper 🫑
Add the bell peppers toward the end of cooking (last 5 minutes) so they retain a subtle sweetness and texture that balances the acidity of tomatoes without becoming mushy or overpowered.
Strategic Pureeing for Texture 🥄
Use an immersion blender for partial pureeing, leaving some vegetable texture intact—this creates a rustic, chunky-smooth consistency that feels homemade while still being sneaky-vegetable friendly for picky eaters.
Low and Slow Simmering ⏱️
After combining all ingredients, simmer gently for 20-30 minutes on low heat rather than high heat to allow flavors to meld and natural vegetable sugars to concentrate without burning the tomato paste.
Strategic Seasoning Build 🧂
Add salt in stages—a pinch with the aromatics, another with the tomatoes, and final adjustments after cooking—this prevents over-salting while ensuring even flavor distribution throughout the entire sauce.