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Tomato Meat Sauce That Goes With Anything (1 Year+)

Being Naomi
A versatile tomato meat sauce packed with vegetables that can be served in so many ways.
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Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine European
Servings 3 Adults & 4 Toddlers or 10 Toddlers

Ingredients
  

  • 250 g Beef Mince (your choice of fat %)
  • 1 Large Clove Garlic
  • 1 Large Onion
  • 1 Large Carrot
  • 60 g Frozen Peas
  • Handful Of Mushrooms I use Chestnut Mushrooms
  • 500 g Passata
  • 1 tsp Dried Mixed Italian Herbs
  • 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
  • 1 tbsp Oil I use Rapeseed/Sunflower oil

Optional

  • 1 tbsp Honey
  • 1 tbsp Ketchup I use Stokes because it has less sugar & salt
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions
 

Prep

  • Finely mince the garlic
  • Finely slice the onions
  • Dice the carrot and mushrooms into little cubes, as fine as you like so it's easy for baby/toddler to eat
  • Your vegetables should look something like this
    Showing chopped carrot, onion, garlic, mushrooms
  • Microwave the onion and carrot in separate bowls for 2min30

Lets Get Cooking!

  • Take a large pan or wok. On medium heat, add the oil and garlic and fry for a few seconds until it gets some colour
  • Turn the heat down to low, add the onion and gently fry for 5 mins until they’re really soft. Keep moving them around so they don’t burn.
    I like to put the lid on the pan because the steam helps to soften the onions as much as possible
    Step1 fry onions in a pan
  • Turn the heat up to medium, add the carrot and continue frying for 2mins
    Step2 add carrots to the onions and fry
  • Add the mushroom and fry for about 3 mins or until the mushrooms start to soften
    Step3 add mushrooms to the pan and fry
  • Push the vegetables to the edges of the pan, leaving a space in the middle, add half the beef mince and fry until it starts to brown. Push the meat to the edge and add the remaining mince.
    (If you add all the mince at once, the temp of the pan goes down suddenly and your mince won't be as juicy).
    Step4 add beef to vegetables and fry
  • Once the meat has almost completely browned, add the frozen peas and mix everything together
    Step5 add peas to beef and vegetables and fry
  • Turn the heat to low, add the passata, mixed herbs and smoked paprika. Mix well, breaking up any clumps of beef
    Step6 add passata, herbs, paprika to meat and vegetables and stir
  • Simmer for 5-10mins with the lid on (ensure there's a gap for steam to escape) and you're done!
    Final meat sauce in the pan

Optional

  • Add the optional honey, ketchup and salt+pepper
  • After it's done, take the whole pan with the lid on and place in an unheated oven for up to 1 hour. This will deepen the flavour and make the onions lovely and melty.

Serve Up!

  • Serve with rice, pasta, couscous, baked potato, boiled potato, mashed potato, anything you want!
    Final Meat Sauce Dish close up

Notes

Storage: This can be frozen as soon as it has cooled down. Consume within 3 months.
 
Tailor the dish for your baby or for adults:

Keeping it really clean for younger babies - leave out the oil, garlic, herbs, paprika, honey, ketchup and salt+pepper and use a non stick pan to fry the beef. Make it like this first, take out baby's portions then add seasoning for adults
Less tomatoey version - put less passata

For Adults - add the optional honey, ketchup, salt+pepper

Spice it up - swap out smoked paprika for hot smoked paprika
Make it Vegetarian - replace the beef with lots of diced/minced mushrooms
Keyword beef, comfort food, dinner, easy, healthy, meat sauce, quick, toddler, tomato sauce, versatile