With just a little bit of prep time, you can have an absolutely incredible homemade vegan spaghetti sauce.
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Lets Make Vegan Spaghetti With Meatless Sauce
Our simple solution for this to be the best vegan spaghetti sauce ever? Use a mixture of fresh and canned ingredients with a lot of herbs and VOILA!
Listen, whether you called it spaghetti sauce, Sunday sauce, or Italian gravy, one things for sure – you want it to taste amazing and not be bland.
We have worked over the last 5 years to tweak and perfect this recipe that has gotten rave reviews from vegans and non-vegans a like. In fact, it’s so good, we serve it at our annual Cookies and Carbs Pasta Parties every holiday season and people beg for it at this point.
You’ll never want to buy another jarred can of pasta sauce again! Use this for pasta, pizza, dipping bread, on meatball subs and so much more. The possibilities are endless and you’ll be so happy with the results.
Jump to:
- Lets Make Vegan Spaghetti With Meatless Sauce
- Vegan Pasta Sauce Recipe Ingredients
- How to Make Vegan Spaghetti Sauce
- Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Meatless Variations
- Ways to Use Vegan Pasta Sauce
- How to Store Vegan Pasta Sauce
- Frequently Asked Questions:
- Pin this easy Vegan Spaghetti Sauce for Later!
- More recipes to try
- 🥳 Get the Full Recipe
- 💬 See What People Are Saying
Vegan Pasta Sauce Recipe Ingredients
Tomatoes
Unless it’s summer time or you can your own tomatoes during summer, you’ll want to go with canned tomatoes. Canned vegetables are done so at peak ripeness which means you get all that tomato flavor you want that’s questionable in the fall and winter in many places.
We’re using a combination of tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce in this recipe for the ultimate taste and flavor.
Substitute: You can use fresh tomatoes if they are in season and home grown or bought at a farmers market.
Onions
We’re using yellow onions in this recipe because we want that flavor to come out and this has a great naturally sweet but great for sauteing texture.
Substitute: You could also use white or sweet onions for this as well.
Brown Sugar
It’s no secret that tomatoes are high in acidity. Adding sugar helps to cut that and make a more balanced sauce overall. Not adding can cause a sharp taste.
Substitute: You can also use cane sugar instead of brown for this recipe as well. Alternatively, you can add in ¼ cup of shredded carrots when sauteing the onions. Carrots have a natural sweetness that also helps balance this dish if you don’t use sugar.
Spices
We are uses dried and fresh spices. Our dried spices are oregano, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, as well as salt and pepper. We are using dried because they hold up better in long cooking timeframes and have a more concentrated flavor.
We are also adding fresh basil at the very end to a pop of that fresh herb taste to really make this sauce sing.
Substitute: You can use dried herbs for fresh. A good rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon fresh for every 1 teaspoon dried.
Vegan Butter
It may seem odd to add butter at the end of the recipe, but adding in a small amount of fat at the end helps with the texture while also adding richness and helps the pasta stick.
Substitute: You can swap with the same amount of olive oil.
How to Make Vegan Spaghetti Sauce
1. In a large pot (we like to use our 8 quart dutch oven), over medium heat, add oil. Once heated, add onions and saute until lightly browned and translucent, about 5 minutes. Then, add garlic and saute for 1 more minute until fragrant.
2. Stir in the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, oregano, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (if using) and bay leaf. Stir everything together until well combined. There should be no big pieces of tomato paste remaining.
3. Bring to a high simmer, then reduce heat to a low simmer and partially cover with a lid. Let cook for a minimum of 1 hour. For the best flavor, we recommend cooking for 3 hours. You will want to stir occasionally and make sure nothing is burning or sticking to the bottom of your pot.
4. Remove bay leaf. Add vegan butter and chopped basil. Let butter melt and stir well. Remove from heat and serve as desired.
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Meatless Variations
- Meat Based Sauce – Feel free in the last 30 minutes of cooking to add in a frozen vegan meatless crumble.
- Vegetable Based – You can add a variety of vegetables to this sauce to make it more nutrient dense – some ideas include: carrots, bell peppers, zucchini, and leeks, but feel free to experiment
- Mushroom Based – Sauteing mushrooms separately and adding them in the last 15 minutes makes for a delicious sauce
- Cheesy – Feel free to add vegan cheeses like parmesan, mozzarella, ricotta, or another favorite
Ways to Use Vegan Pasta Sauce
Obviously spaghetti! And it’s delicious together, but there are more options.
Here’s a few more ideas that go well with vegan tomato soup:
- make homemade pizza and use it as a sauce
- dip our homemade vegan breadsticks in it
- use it as a sauce for meatball subs added to our vegan baguette bread
How to Store Vegan Pasta Sauce
You will want to let the sauce cool completely. The store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Alternatively, you can freeze in individual portions for up to 3 months at a time in freezer safe containers or bags.
Let thaw out overnight in the fridge or put in warm water to thaw before opening your bag or container.
Frequently Asked Questions:
We are using a varieties of tomatoes to give the biggest impact in flavor and texture. While you could mix and match depending on what you have, if you truly want the best we recommend using the ones we have listed.
Once made, let cool completely. Then, you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
The only ingredient that you need to be mindful of for allergens is the vegan butter.
Use a soy free vegan butter if you need. Or you can just omit.
We add a hint of vegan butter for richness, but if you are oil free, then free free to omit it without any other changes or additions.
Pin this easy Vegan Spaghetti Sauce for Later!
More recipes to try
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 14.5oz can petite diced tomatoes (with juice)
- 4 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, Optional, more or less to taste, can omit
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (or 1 tablespoon dried)
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter
Instructions
- Over medium heat, in a large pot, add oil. Add onion and saute until lightly browned and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and saute for 1 more minute until fragrant.
- Stir in the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, oregano, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (if using) and bay leaf.
- Bring to a high simmer, then reduce heat to a low simmer and partially cover with a lid. Let cook for a minimum of 1 hour (up to 3 hours), stir occasionally. *Check to make sure sauce is not sticking to bottom. If it is, reduce heat further.
- Remove bay leaf. Add vegan butter and chopped basil. Let butter melt and stir well. Remove from heat and serve as desired.
Awesome. I’m officially a fan. Made it as written other than adding a pound of sauteed mushrooms to “meat” it out a bit.
This is awesome! So happy to hear that you are officially a fan. And we love the addition of the mushrooms that you made!
I’m not sure if I already gave this a 5 star, so I’m making sure I do. This is so close to my recipe except better. I never use detailed amounts so the sauce isn’t always the same. With this detailed recipe…it’s absolutely delicious. We love it! Thank you for sharing. I’ve been using much of your recipes since discovering you and every one of them have been delicious.
Awww thank you do much!!! We truly appreciate you giving the recipes a try!
This was delicious! Perfect balance of flavors, easy to make, tastes even better the next day. So happy to have a go-to vegan spaghetti sauce recipe. Thank you!
glad you enjoyed it!