The Best Vegan Pasta Sauce with Molasses

This pasta sauce is full of delicious veggies, herbs, garlic, tomatoes and molasses! The molasses adds a nutritional value and a great layer of flavor that makes this sauce the best vegan pasta sauce ever. Tasty and healthy.

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Ingredients for Vegan Pasta Sauce

Tomato Sauce

The base for our sauce is tomatoes. Tomato sauce is a classic, traditional base for pasta sauces. In the late summer I like to can the majority of my tomato sauces and dice tomatoes needs. I am out of my own cans so today I used canned tomato sauce from Walmart. Any tomato sauce will work. Sometimes if I want tomato chunks in my sauce I will add a small can of petite diced tomatoes.

Veggies

Mushrooms, onions, zucchini, spinach and bell peppers all might it in to this recipe. If you don’t like a specific vegetable don’t add it. If you like another vegetable, add it! There’s not always a right or wrong when adding veggies to recipes. With pasta sauce be creative. Artichokes, kale, Pepperoncini would all be great additions…

Herbs & Garlic

Italian herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary can all add deep flavor to our sauce. This is an area that I again encourage creativity. Find the flavor you like best from these Italian herbs and make it the star of your sauce. The other herbs can support you choose lead flavor. Lately I have really enjoyed sage, and I have a lot of it in my garden. So sage and rosemary became my boldest flavors in this recipe. I added an Italian seasoning mix for my supporting flavors.

Garlic is also used for a nice strong flavor. I used fresh garlic but that can also be substituted for garlic powder.

Molasses

Blackstrap molasses is the only molasses I use. It is so rich in nutrients and flavor. From iron to vitamin b, calcium, and copper, magnesium and manganese. So many vital minerals and vitamin are found in molasses that I try to add it to as many recipes as I can. Some recipes its not so good in but it seems to be made for pasta sauce. I can’t even explain how delicious it makes my sauces. When cooking vegan some tend to think you loose a lot of flavor from excluding the meat. I see it as an opportunity to add flavor from different sources making my meal healthier and tasty.

To read more about molasses check out “benefits of blackstrap molasses“.

More Recipes With Blackstrap Molasses:

• Banana Nut Molasses Bread
• Homemade Vegan Chili with Molasses
• Green Spinach & Molasses Smoothie
• Oatmeal Raisin Molasses Cookies

How To Make Vegan Pasta Sauce

Saute Veggies

First step in making sauce is to saute our veggies. With a little oil in your pan first saute the onions. The onions are the most important to get soften before added the liquids (tomato sauce). The onions take the longest to soften so I always add them in first. Next is up to you. I dice my veggies nice and small and sometimes I even grate them for nice fine texture. If you don’t want any chunks in your sauce you can puree the whole sauce once its cooked if you like.

Add Garlic and Herbs

Don’t forget to add the garlic and saute with your vegetables. If you are using garlic powder then just add them in with your herbs. If you are using fresh herbs take the leaves off the stem and mince them nice and small.

Add Tomato Sauce and Molasses

Now you add the base, the tomato sauce and molasses. Mix until combined heat up and taste (without burning your self). Add any need salt or pepper, extra herbs… if you like a little kick to your sauce add some red peppers or paprika.

Let Simmer

Let Simmer for about 10-30 minutes. No need to get it to a full boil but just a light simmer for awhile. Its during the simmering that I usually get my pasta cooked, salad make and table set.

Shop This Recipe!

• Blackstrap molasses (amazon)
• Blackstrap molasses (azure standard)

You can shop local grocery stores and farmers markets for the rest of your ingredients.