Extend A Sauce With A Bag Of Frozen Carrots

One of our favorite tricks for extending sauces to feed a few more people is a simple bag of carrots. Even though we're usually prepared for most meals we make, there are always times when we need to stretch a dish. This is an easy trick that yields extra tasty results!

We love the depth of flavor that carrots bring to a rich bolognese sauce, but we don't always have time for the slow cooking — and sometimes we need a bit of extra sauce, too. If you're in a hurry and find yourself shy of a few tomatoes (be it fresh or from a jar or a can), try busting out a bag of frozen carrots.

We toss the frozen carrots in our Cuisinart and pulse them until finely chopped (a blender will work as well, though you might need to do them in batches). Toss the grated carrots in your sauce and watch it bulk up right away. Not only does it add volume, it adds a little extra something that pairs nicely with tomatoes.

You can also do the same thing with frozen pearl onions. It's a super fast and tasty way to feed a few more people at a moment's notice and make your sauce for two stretch to feed four or more! You can of course do the same thing with fresh vegetables as well — but it's a little known fact that we're actually part rabbit, so our carrots get snacked upon quite quickly after returning home!

Do you have a quick fix for when your pantry appears more bare than you thought it was? Let us know in the comments below!

• Related: Which Vegetables Are OK to Buy Frozen?

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Comments (14)

Hmmm... gotta try that!

Adding frozen carrots and pearl onions to Fresh Direct cart now.

My usual tactic to extend a sauce is ricotta cheese...if I have some. A bag or two of "extenders" in the freezer is a better expedient.

Frozen bags of broccoli raab added to an existing sauce have saved me in a pinch as well.

Great tip!

My only problem with this would be if the carrots somehow didn't get cooked through enough or if the sauce wasn't strong enough to compete with their flavor.

I find that whatever I cook with carrots always ends up tasting like carrot. And eating carrot-flavored spaghetti or pasta is not fun.

No matter how tiny the pieces are, carrots tossed in at the last minute are going to be hard little bits of carrot, esp. in a slow cooked sauce. If you really need to extend, try cooking the carrots quickly by microwave or boiling water, and then using an immersion blender to semi-puree them.

I love this idea-thank you!

I agree with the comments about texture. I have a Martha Stewart sloppy joe recipe that my husband despises because it calls for shredded carrots in the sauce. The texture is really difficult to smoothe out and blend well with the tomatoes.

A friend of mine has a juicer, and when he brings over carrot pulp for me to use, I've tossed it into sauces with great success. I find the pulp... well, most of the flavour has been juiced out of them, so they are mainly there to serve as fibre.

We use canned pumpkin instead. If you up your aromatics, like garlic or ginger, it blends in and is almost indiscernable.

Mmm- one of me and my guy's go to meals on a hurried night is quickly dicing up a carrot with some garlic, and sauteeing it with any meat we have laying around til it's cooked through, and then adding marinara to sort of braise it all together. I think the carrots add such a nice sweetness. Makes a jarred pasta sauce so much better.

Zuba, where the heck are you finding frozen broccoli raab?

Also a great way to sneak in veggies for those who don't like them. :)

frozen carrots are like sponges. I hate 'em

I always put two grated carrots in a bolognese. They add a really nice depth of flavor and if you're trying to stretch a pre made sauce out you can just grate them and zap them in the microwave for three minutes (this way you aren't waiting for ages for them to cook through). Frozen carrots, however, are icky. Only use fresh ones.