Juicy meat sauce with 3 or more vegetables
...freezes well.....plus, a great way to hide vegetables.
On days when it’s busy and I don’t feel like cooking, meat sauce and pasta is a great option. Also works well over rice or mashed potatoes, not to mention couscous for an extra-fast meal. AND it’s a great way to get kids to eat more veggies than they know. ;)
Juicy meat sauce with 3 or more vegetables
You’ll need:
A quart jar of pasta sauce, any flavor you like (makes 4-6 servings)
3 lbs of burger
pepper, garlic powder, paprika, oregano
optionally add a pinch of any of these: steak spice, curry, marjoram, tarragon and/or chili
vegetables - any of: tomatoes, onions, zucchini, sweet potato, winter squash, celery, cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, green peppers, mushrooms, kidney beans, chickpeas, green olives
If cooking on a stovetop, pour the pasta sauce into a 4-6 quart pot. Turn on medium heat. Add the burger and stir it in evenly.
Keep stirring often and turn the heat down to a low simmer as soon as it starts cooking so it doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn. Sprinkle on some spices.
Finely dice or slice approx. 1/2 to 1 cup of each vegetable you want to use. If you use more vegetables, use less of each. You can add just one or two vegs, or several.
Here are some good combinations, feel free to create your own:
1) tomatoes, onions, zuccchini or cucumbers (deseed and dice), peppers, mushrooms
2) tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, chickpeas, canned corn
3) tomatoes, sweet or green peppers, onions, green olives
When the meat is fully cooked (probably about 30-40 minutes if it is simmering continuously; stir frequently), taste the liquid in the pot and add a small amount of spice at a time if needed, until it suits you.
Add the vegetables and barely simmer until done. It goes faster if you stir often and keep a lid on the pot to hold in the heat. If the sauce is too liquid, turn the burner to low and cook very, very slowly, stirring every 5 minutes or as often as needed to keep it from burning, until the extra liquid evaporates. This will also make the flavor more intense.
To make this dish in a slow cooker, follow the same instructions. Using a slow cooker requires very little attention, since you don’t have to stir it all the time, but it takes much longer to cook. Try it for the first time when you’re going to be around for the afternoon; put the cooker on after lunch and time how long it takes as a reference for next time.
Serve over pasta, steamed rice, spaetzle, mashed potatoes or polenta (corn mush).
A warm, comfy winter meal for busy days.
Here’s something cool from the older generations. It stirs the imagination: did it come from some medieval tower? plague house? a small castle? Did they have pasta back then? If so, it was probably hand cut, because those pins holding the lock together definitely weren’t made by a machine.
It’s anybody’s guess.