Easy, 5-Ingredient Creamy Carrot Tomato Vegan Pasta Sauce

This rich Creamy Carrot Tomato Vegan Pasta Sauce is only 5 ingredients, loaded with hidden veggies, freezable, easy to make, and can be used for all sorts of dishes!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Gluten-Free, Italian, Vegan

Keyword easy dinner ideas, easy pasta sauce, vegan dinner ideas, vegan pasta sauce

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings servings

Calories 137kcal

Author Anjali Lalani

Ingredients

For the Sauce:

10 medium vine-ripe tomatoes , quartered
8 medium-large orange carrots , diced into large pieces
1/2 medium white onion , diced into large pieces
8 cloves garlic , minced
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup raw cashews , soaked in water for 2-3 hours (optional, use for creamier pasta sauce)
2 stems celery , diced into large pieces (optional)
salt , to taste
red crushed pepper (optional)
freshly ground black pepper (optional)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

To Prepare Sauce:

Select the Saute button (normal) on the Instant Pot or heat a non-stick pan on medium heat.
Add olive oil.
Add all the minced garlic and cook until fragrant (~30 sec).
Add the diced white onions and cook for another 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the diced carrots, tomatoes, and celery (if using). Saute for another 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add 1/4 cup water and mix well.
For Instant Pot Method: Close the Instant Pot lid. Select the Pressure Cook button to cook on high pressure (HP). Set the timer for 7 minutes. When the time is up, allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR). Open the lid and cool slightly.
For Stove-Top Method: When mixture starts boiling, turn down heat to gentle simmer and cover pot. Let it simmer covered for about 15 minutes or until carrots are very tender (no need to add water to the pot because tomatoes should release liquid).
Empty the contents into a blender (I used my Vitamix) and completely puree everything. Depending on how much sauce you make, you may need to do this in two batches.
Pour most of the pureed sauce back into the pot or instant pot, but leave about 2 cup of the sauce in the blender.
Drain the soaked cashews (if using) and add them into the blender with the remaining sauce. Blend on high completely until the cashews are pureed and the mixture becomes thick and creamy. There should not be any pieces of cashews left in the sauce.
Pour the cashew cream/pasta sauce mixture in the pot along with the rest of the pasta sauce.
Heat the pot on medium-low, saute mode (normal) for Instant Pot, and simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes to reduce and thicken the sauce if necessary.
Season with salt to taste. Since we did not add any salt prior to this step, depending on how sweet your tomatoes are and whether or not you used cashews, you may need to add a decent amount of salt for the amount of pasta sauce you have.
(optional) Add red crushed pepper and freshly ground black pepper for some spice.
The creamy carrot tomato sauce is done! You can pour it over your favorite cooked pasta, use it as a pizza sauce, in a casserole, or let it cool completely and freeze in freezable containers to use at a later time (see notes below on how best to defrost).

Notes

This recipe makes about 3 cups of sauce. you need 6-7 tbsp sauce per 1 cup cooked pasta. The nutritional label below includes the use of cashews.

How To Prepare Sauce Using Traditional Pressure Cooker -

Follow through with recipe up to Step 6.
Lock the lid in place for the pressure cooker (make sure you have the whistle attached) and turn the heat to medium-high.
Once the steam begins to hiss out of the pressure cooker, reduce the heat down to medium to maintain the hissing. Cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker sit until the safety valve releases and you can open the pressure cooker.
Follow the above recipe again starting at Step 9 until the end. Just add a bit of water if needed while blending to get desired thickness of sauce.

Seasoning/Tomatoes/Carrots - The tomatoes I used were home-grown and sweet, so depending on how sweet your tomatoes are will affect the taste of your sauce, so feel free to adjust accordingly with enough salt. The instant pot/pressure cooker method allows the carrots to really cook through and caramelize.

Freezing Option - I typically make a larger batch of this sauce and freeze leftovers in freezable containers for quick go-to meals. Simply pull the sauce out of the freezer the day before to defrost, and give it a quick whirl in any blender to fix consistency before heating (I use my hand blender).

For the Pasta - I recommend using any of the following: NOW Foods Quinoa Pasta, Whole Grain elbow pasta , Explore Cuisine Red Lentil Penne, or Explore Cuisine Green Lentil Pasta (the last two options are both Gluten-Free and have 21g of protein per serving for a complete meal!), gluten-free brown rice pasta by Tinkyada, quinoa pasta, etc.

To Prepare a Baked Pasta Dish - For every 1 cup cooked pasta, you'll need about 7 tbsp of the creamy carrot tomato sauce. Mix, add in fresh black pepper or red crushed pepper for spice and heat, then transfer to a baking dish.

In a separate bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups breadcrumbs, 1 1/4 teasp salt, 1/2 teasp onion powder, 3/4 teasp garlic powder, and 3/4 teasp dry Italian Seasoning.
Sprinkle a layer of your favorite vegan mozzarella (follow your heart block or Daiya new cutting board collection are two of my favorites).
Sprinkle a thin layer of the breadcrumb mixture over the pasta (store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge), and broil in the oven until golden brown (this will happen quickly so be sure to watch the oven, otherwise your breadcrumbs will burn).
You can also bake this dish at 375 degrees if your pasta is cold, but be sure to slightly under-cook your pasta and add a little more sauce so it does not dry out while baking.

Other Uses For Sauce:

Pizza - This makes the perfect creamy pizza sauce, complete with veggies!
Spiralized Veggie Dish - Spiralize some zucchini & add in any other veggies (broccoli or mushrooms). Cook the veggies on high, add in the spiralized zucchini for a few minutes, then toss with vegan pasta sauce. Add some red crushed peppers or vegan parm.
Baked Spaghetti Squash Casserole - Toss this vegan pasta sauce with roasted cooked spaghetti squash. Place in casserole dish, top with vegan mozzarella or breadcrumbs and bake in the oven.

Nutrition