Hidden Vegetable Crockpot Marinara Sauce

Crockpot Recipes are a lifesaver for busy moms.  In fact, a slow cooker and a cookbook should be a common baby shower gift.  Because when a busy mom is trying to care for baby, hold the toddler, and get kids from the school bus, all while getting after school snacks situated, homework started, and dinner made…it’s a giant mess.  





Enter the crockpot.


This crockpot marinara sauce recipe will cook all day and allow Mom practice the sight words and spelling lists instead of preparing dinner.  The bonus is this recipe is loaded with hidden vegetables so that the whole family is getting extra servings of veggies.  They won’t even realize the added vegetables in this marinara sauce.  This sauce is so good that you’ll want to eat it right from a bowl. In fact, we did. No pasta, no rice…only sauce.  Just saucy goodness!

This recipe is part of our A-Z Cooking with Kids series and today, T is for tomatoes.  We used a ton of tomatoes to make this recipe and ended up with a full crockpot for multiple dinners and even a freezer recipe.  

Hidden Vegetable Crockpot Marinara Sauce

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To make this marinara sauce, you’ll need the following ingredients:


Half Zucchini, sliced and finely chopped
Half Onion, chopped
One Sweet Potato, peeled, and finely chopped
1/2 cup Baby Leaf Spinach
8 ounce can of diced tomatoes (for the puree)
32 ounces diced tomatoes
48 ounces jarred tomato sauce
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons dry parsley
2 teaspoons fresh chopped basil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 pinch sugar

Start by pureeing the baby spinach and diced tomatoes in a blender or Food Processor.  Pour this mixture into a Crock-Pot.  Chop, slice, and dice the vegetables, very fine. Add the vegetables and all of the remaining ingredients to the crockpot.  Turn on the crockpot to cook for 8 hours.  

The sauce will be chunky from the diced tomatoes, but if you chopped the sweet potato, onion, and zucchini small enough, they will not be noticeable in the sauce.  Serve over pasta, in a lasagna, or other Italian dish. 


This recipe makes a lot of sauce.  We used it for lunch, dinner, in a lasagna, and in a baked ziti, are multiple meals made from a crockpot meal.  

Stop by and see what the other Cooking With Kids bloggers have made using tomatoes:


Marinated Tomatoes  from Still Playing School
Tomato and Courgette Bruchetta from Mum in the Mad House

You will also love trying these Cooking With Kids recipes.  We sure did: