This is the best healthy meat sauce recipe! It's easy to make in one pot with lean ground beef, jarred tomato sauce, vegetables, and olives. This meat sauce has the most incredible Italian flavour, is great for meal prep, freezes well, and is kid approved!
I am so excited to share this recipe with you! This is the meat sauce I grew up with. It's my idea of comfort food and is seriously the best meat sauce ever. I really can't take any credit for the recipe as it was my Dad who came up with it (just like my popular gluten free burgers), but I figured it was just too good to keep to myself any longer. This meat sauce has my favourite secret ingredient, olives! Yes olives. Just trust me, it takes any meat sauce to the next level of tastiness. I can't wait for you to try it!
Table of Contents
Why you will love this recipe:
- This healthy spaghetti sauce has the most incredible flavour! The addition of olives takes this meat sauce over the top and makes it taste so much better.
- It's so quick and easy to make and is perfect for meal prep.
- You'll love that it's made in one pot so the clean up is so quick and easy - just like ground pork chili!
- This homemade meat sauce freezes really well.
- This spaghetti sauce is sugar free and it's also naturally gluten free, dairy free, paleo and Whole30 compliant. It's a healthy complete meal that's loaded with vegetables.
If you love healthy ground beef recipes you will also love my sugar free sloppy joes, Whole30 stuffed peppers, meatloaf without breadcrumbs or cheese and gluten-free meatloaf.
Key ingredients and substitutions:
For the complete ingredient list and the exact measurements refer to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Lean ground beef - I love using grass fed and grass finished lean ground beef but you can use any type of ground beef you like. You can also use another ground meat such as ground chicken or ground turkey too.
- Tomato sauce - I use jarred tomato sauce for this recipe - choose your favourite brand to give this sauce the most incredible flavour. I do recommend reading the labels and choosing a tomato sauce without any added sugar to keep this spaghetti sauce as healthy as possible. If you are on a low sodium diet also be sure to choose a sauce that is low sodium or made with less sodium.
- Green and black olives - the secret ingredients for this sauce! I know it sounds crazy but just trust me, olives make meat sauce so much better! If you don't like olives you can leave them out of this recipe.
- Bell peppers - chopped bell peppers help make this sauce high in vegetables and give it a delicious flavour and chunky texture. You can change up the colours of sweet bell peppers that you use depending on what you have on hand.
- Seasonings - I keep it simple with sea salt, ground black pepper, Italian seasoning and dried basil to help give this sauce so much delicious Italian flavour.
- Tomato paste - this is added to help give the sauce the perfect thick texture. If you don't add the tomato paste it will end up more watery with more of a soup like texture.
How to make healthy meat sauce:
Step one:
First, place a large pot on the stove on medium heat. Add the coconut oil and allow it to melt. Then add the ground beef and cook it for 5-10 minutes until browned, stirring frequently to break it apart.
Step two:
Next, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, olives, spices, and chopped bell peppers to the meat. Stir everything well until it's combined.
Step three:
Now turn down the heat to low heat, cover the pot with the lid, and allow it to simmer for 50-60 minutes, until the vegetables are the consistency you prefer and the sauce has the thickness you like (a thicker sauce will need more time to simmer). Stir the sauce infrequently while simmering. Then serve and enjoy!
Top tip:
- The cooking time will vary depending on how thick you want your sauce to be - the longer you let it simmer the thicker the sauce will get.
Variations and add ins:
- Instead of lean ground beef you can use another ground meat such as ground turkey, ground pork or ground chicken.
- Feel free to add other vegetables - I will often add chopped onion, carrots, zucchini or green peas. This sauce is a great way to use up any vegetables that you have in the fridge.
- Feel free to add cooked, chopped sausages, such as air fried Italian sausage to give it even more flavour and make it higher in protein.
- I love a chunky meat sauce but if you prefer a smoother texture, finely chop the vegetables and olives or puree them in your food processor before adding them to the sauce.
- For an extra kick of flavour add a bit of dry red wine to the sauce.
- You could add other seasonings such as onion powder or garlic powder for even more flavour.
Serving ideas:
This meat sauce is delicious served as is but you can also serve it over cooked pasta noodles, spaghetti noddles, grain free spaghetti noodles, cooked spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles . You can also pair this healthy bolognese with a side of garlic bread, gluten free almond flour biscuits, or other side dishes such as a kale apple salad.
How to store:
Store any leftover sauce in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I recommend storing it in a glass container so that the red sauce does not stain your plastic containers.
This sauce also freezes well in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Healthy meat sauce FAQs:
Bolognese is known in Italy as ragù alla bolognese. It is a meat-based sauce and is classically used to dress tagliatelle al ragù and to prepare lasagne alla bolognese. It is usually made with onion, celery, carrot, beef and pork, white wine, milk, and a small amount of tomato paste or tomatoes. The dish is gently simmered to produce a thick sauce. Meat sauce on the other hand is typically a tomato-based sauce and is more common outside of Italy. Ground beef or other ground meats such as ground turkey are often added.
It is usually healthier to make your own pasta sauce compared to buying pre-made pasta sauce. Many store bought pasta sauces will contain added sugars, whereas when you make your own pasta sauce you can keep it sugar fee and add other healthy ingredients like fresh vegetables.
This healthy spaghetti sauce recipe is great for diabetics because it is sugar free and has no added sugar.
Yes! You can easily swap the ground beef for ground turkey to make this a ground turkey meat sauce instead.
Other recipes you will love:
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Recipe
Healthy Meat Sauce
Equipment
- large pot
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil (or other cooking oil of choice)
- 2 lbs lean ground beef
- 3 jars tomato sauce (total of ~2100 mL)
- 1 can tomato paste (156 mL)
- 1 can black olives (juice included)
- 1 can green olives (juice included)
- 2 tablespoon Italian seasoning (more or less to taste)
- 2 tablespoon dried basil (more or less to taste)
- 2 teaspoon sea salt (more or less to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (more or less to taste)
- 4 sweet bell peppers, chopped
Instructions
- Place a large pot on the stove on medium heat. Add the coconut oil and allow it to melt. Then add the ground beef and cook it for 5-10 minutes until browned, stirring frequently to break it apart.
- Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, olives, spices and chopped bell peppers to the meat. Stir well until everything is combined.
- Turn down the heat, cover the pot with the lid and allow it to simmer for 50-60 minutes, until the vegetables are the consistency you like. Stir the sauce infrequently while simmering.
Notes
- Store this sauce in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Instead of ground beef feel free to use another ground meat such as ground turkey or ground pork.
- You can add other vegetables to this recipe such as carrots, peas or zucchini.
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