Bolognese sauce is one of best dishes to use to hide vegetables that your picky eaters wouldn’t normally eat. Light and yet meaty, this lighter bolognese is packed with zucchini and instead of beef, it’s made with turkey. Garlic, oregano and fennel give it a refreshing Italian flavor.
Use Lighter Bolognese Sauce To Hide Veggies!
Lighter bolognese sauce is wonderful over pasta or rice but I find that it pairs perfectly with whole wheat orzo. You should try it! There is something about crumbly turkey and smooth and silky orzo pasta. This combination transforms my picky eater into a most appreciative one who devours his dinner. Another favorite is classic bolognese over fettuccine that I learned to make from my 85-year old Italian landlord. Really, bolognese sauce works like magic with picky toddlers.
Grating veggies by hand can be time consuming so I do what every food smart mom does – I use a food processor. This is truly the time to pull out a shredding disc (often called the grating disc) and put it to good use. If you don’t use a food processor, a box grater works just as great.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey, 97% fat free
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 medium onion, grated
- 3 cloves of garlic, grated
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 parsnip, grated
- 2 large zucchini, grated
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, ground
- 24-ounce jar of organic tomato and basil sauce
- 1-2 cup chicken broth
- In a 6-quart pot, heat oil over medium heat and brown turkey well. Crumble turkey with two wooden spoons. Stir occasionally to prevent burning, about 10 minutes. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and toss in fennel seeds. Allow fennel seeds to release their flavor, about 30 seconds, then pour in the red wine vinegar. Combine everything and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add grated vegetables and stir. Cook for several minutes until zucchini shrinks to half its volume. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in tomato and basil sauce and bring to boil. Lower the heat, put a lid ajar and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary and add some chicken broth if it gets too thick, ¼ cup at the time.
- Remove from heat and serve hot over pasta or rice.
Certain brands also may have sugar listed because tomatoes love sugar. I buy tomato sauce with no added sugar because I prefer to add a carrot to provide sweetness necessary for a tomato-based sauce instead. If you taste the dish and find it’s acidic, try adding another carrot or ½ teaspoon of sugar to it.
Make ahead and store in the refrigerator or freeze for several weeks.
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