Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce: 'Meaty' with hidden veggies (2024)

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Just the Recipe

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All The Details

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Visual Overview

Tips: Cooking for mixed groups

Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce! This plant-based tomato sauce is a crowd pleaser -- a traditional, Italian-inspired sauce that tastes meaty, but contains no meat. What it does contain is plenty of vegetables -- about 8 cups, but they're nicely hidden. Super versatile, serve with your favourite spaghetti, and optionally, Beyond Meat Meatballs.

This hearty sauce also makes a great base sauce for lasagna!

For those of you cooking for households that have diverse diets, check out our Tips: Cooking for mixed groups.

Ingredients

Olive oil: This is for sauteeing the vegetables and Beyond Meat. You can use any neutral flavoured oil that can take high heat.
Onion: I used a sweet onion, but a white or yellow onion would be fine as well.
Peppers: Make this with whatever colour of peppers you like.
Garlic: This recipes uses crushed whole garlic and also dried garlic powder, as each adds a different type of garlicky flavour.
Spinach: I used fresh spinach, but you could also use frozen.
Beyond Meat ground beef: You can find it in many grocery stores, in pre-made burger form, or in ground meat form. We used the ground meat form. I’ve done a lot of cooking with Beyond Meat. I've made Shepard’s Pie, Beyond Meat Meatballs, a Beyond Meat Grazing Platter,andTaco Salad and I've found that it cooks and tastes very similar to real ground meat.
Strained tomatoes/tomato sauce: Use unsalted or lightly salted tomato sauce. Try to avoid any brand that contains sugar, as it impacts the flavour of the sauce.
Basil:I use dried basil in the sauce, and fresh basil as garnish.
Red pepper flakes: Dried red pepper flakes provide a hint of heat. You can omit them if you like.
Optional: Sun-dried tomatoes:If you have some handy, sun-dried tomatoes make a nice addition to the sauce.
Optional: Parmesan Cheese: If you're vegetarian or omnivore, you can add finely grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce, as well as passing additional cheese when serving.

Visual Overview: Making Beyond Beef Spaghetti Sauce

Preparation

Step 1: Organize the ingredients.

Gather all of the ingredients. Measure out the dry spices and the Parmesan cheese, if using.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce

Step 2: Dice the onions and peppers.

Finely dice the onions and the peppers. I use an inexpensive food chopper to get an even, fine dice. If you want the vegetables to be 'hidden' the finer the dice the better.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce, dicing the vegetables

Making the Sauce

Step 1: Heat the oil and fry the onions.

Heat the oil. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes, until they are starting to get soft and golden.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce, frying the onions.

Step 2: Add the peppers.

Add the peppers and cook and stir for another 5 minutes.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce, cooking the onions and peppers

Step 3: Add the garlic and Beyond Meat.

Stir in the garlic and Beyond Meat.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce

Cook and stir until the 'meat' is browned, about 5 minutes.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce

Step 4: Add in the spices, strained tomatoes, and sun-dried tomatoes (if using).

Add the dried basil, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, strained tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes (if using.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce

Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce

Step 5: Add in the spinach and Parmesan (if using).

Add in the finely chopped spinach and Parmesan (if using - not shown).

Making Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce

Related Recipes

Swimming Rama with Vegan Chicken

Garlicky White Bean Soup with Plant-Based Sausage

Beyond Meat Grazing Platter

Beyond Meat Meatballs

Beyond Beef Taco Salad

Beyond Beef Shepherd’s Pie

Tips: cooking for mixed groups

I've made the plant-based version of this recipe many times. I've also made the same recipe using real beef, or sometimes a 50/50 mix of beef and pork. While you obviously cannot cook for both vegans and carnivores in the same pot, the prep work for both versions is identical, as is the cooking process. Therefore, you could make both versions, side-by-side, easily.

If you do make separate versions, be sure to keep track of which is which, as the final versions look very similar.

Recipe Card

Print Recipe RATE RECIPE

Beyond Meat Spaghetti Sauce - Meaty with hidden veggies

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

This homemade Italian-style spaghetti sauce is a real crowd pleaser. Hearty and meaty like a traditional spaghetti sauce but made with plant-based Beyond Meat and almost 8 cups of vegetables.

Servings 4

Calories 489 kcal

Author Sylvia

Ingredients

▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
▢ 1 cup onion, finely diced
▢ 1-2 cups peppers, finely diced (I use an assortment of red, orange, and yellow, but use any colour you like.)
▢ 2-4 cloves garlic, crushed
▢ 2 cups spinach, finely chopped
▢ 1 unit Beyond Meat ground beef
▢ 680 ml strained/crushed tomatoes (I recommend a brand that has no sugar. It should contain just tomatoes and salt.)
▢ 2 teaspoons dried basil
▢ 1 tablespoon dried garlic
▢ 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional Ingredients

▢ 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
▢ 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

Preparation

The key to making this recipe a 'hidden' veggie sauce is to dice all of the vegetables as finely as possible. I use a small food chopper for this, which speeds up the work. I recommend chopping everything but the spinach before starting the recipe. While the sauce is simmering, you'll have time to chop the spinach.

Making the Sauce

Heat the oil in a large pan.
Stir in the onions and cook for 5 minutes on medium high.
Add the peppers and cook, stirring occassionally, for another 5 minutes.
Add the fresh garlic, and cook and stir for 5 more minutes.
Add the Beyond Meat and cook until browned, about 5 for minutes.
Turn down to a simmer and add the strained/crushed tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes if using, and dried basil, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the spinach and the Parmesan cheese (if using). Cook until the spinach is dissolved into the sauce, 5-10 minutes.
Taste and add salt as needed.

Notes

Storage and reheating

You can store this in a well-sealed container for 2-3 days. If you want to keep it for longer, you can freeze it. Use within a month. Defrost and reheat over low heat.

Replacing fresh spinach with frozen

You can replace the fresh spinach with about 1/4 cup of frozen spinach. Add the frozen spinach at the same time as you add the tomatoes and spices.

Replacing Beyond Meat

I have not tested this with other brands of plant-based meat, to date, but I think it would work just as well with similar products.

Nutrition

Courses, Cuisines, and Keywords

Course

dinner

Cuisine

American

Italian

Keywords

plant-based meat sauce

vegan meat sauce

vegan spaghetti sauce