Aubergine Pasta
Whenever we go to the market or supermarket we always let the children pick something they would like to buy for us to cook with (they don’t get to choose sweets). They have chosen many things since we started doing this, in the beginning, it was fruits to try and different shaped pasta and sausages but a few months back Little Bear chose an aubergine.
Things that children don’t typically like have been chosen before; we’ve had sprouts (one liked and one didn’t) and spinach (all around no) but I’ve never had anything that I wasn’t confident cooking. I said yes, popped it in the trolly, and headed home wondering how best to cook it.
My mind went straight to mousaka but it was a cold, sleeting day and I really didn’t fancy that meal, it just felt too summery. So I decided to roast it with other Mediterranean vegetables and then blitz it into a sauce – anyone with toddlers knows that blitzing things into sauces is a great way to get the flavour and goodness into them without having to worry about lumps or textures. That is how this meal was created and I feel it will become a firm family favourite.
The ingredients aren’t particularly seasonal at the moment but with the seasoning, this sauce is super yummy. It’s also really simple to make, easy to do in bulk, and freezes well. It’s a super healthy sauce so even though you are having the comfort of a bowl of pasta, it’s still giving you lots of goodness.
I’ve listed what I used below but you can really use any soft veggies in whatever quantities you have to hand.
The sauce makes 8 portions.
Ingredients
- 1 aubergine
- 1 courgette
- 1 red pepper
- 8 mushrooms
- 1 small red onion
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp italian seasoning (or a mix of basil and oregano)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tins of plum tomatoes
- 4 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp bouillion powder
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180C.
- Get a big roasting dish, oil it generously and sprinkle your salt, pepper, garlic powder and italian seasoning onto it.
- Chop your veggies into 1-2 inch chunks and pop in the dish, roasting for about 30 minutes (it doesnt really matter what size you chop them, just adjust the cooking time accordingly).
- Once roasted pop all the veggies into a food processor along with the tinned tomatoes, puree, and bouillion, and blitz it until it is the consistency you like. Sometimes I add a splash of water to thin the sauce out.
- Heat up in a saucepan and serve with pasta. We love it with taglitilli and vegan parmesan (and meatballs if you’re going for it).
- Enjoy!
I hope this simple weekday meal inspires you to get a few extra veggies into your children. It’s a really comforting bowl of food and any leftover sauce freezes well or can be used up in pizza rolls or as pizza sauce.
Happy cooking,
Livvy and Summer
