Why You Should Add Carrot Pulp To Your Pasta Sauce, According To Reddit

For a quick weeknight dinner, all you need to do is keep a couple of extra jars of pasta sauce on hand and some spaghetti. Store-bought pasta sauce can be handy, but if you've got the time, making a pasta sauce isn't all that tricky. You can make a tasty marinara sauce in your slow cooker, but if you're looking to shake up your own recipe for tomato sauce, Reddit has a tip for you.

On the subreddit r/foodhacks, one user posted the way that they elevate their pasta while on a budget. Instead of using cheese to make the sauce richer, they explained that they add carrot pulp to their sauce. Wondering what it tastes like? In the post, they said, "It makes the sauce thicker and it has just the right texture to feel cheesy, the color change also makes it look like your sauce is saturated with cheese."

While the carrot pulp might be a cheese substitute, that doesn't mean this cook shines away from cheese. The original poster said that they'll add some parmesan, and this makes the dish taste like lasagna! Plus, they said this is a great way to use up carrot pulp after juicing, so you can use up your vegetable scraps.

It looks like the original poster isn't the only person who uses extra veggies for their pasta sauce because a lot of commenters related and shared their own recipes in the Reddit thread. One person wrote, "I take my box grater and grate onion, carrots [and] mushrooms then fry it all up until soft and mushroom juice has mostly evaporated. Add two cans of whole tomatoes and cook on high until nice and hot then use an immersion blender to get it all smooth."

If you don't have carrots on hand, someone else suggested this: "I grate zucchini in mine too. Can't taste it, but full of vitamins." But for people who have carrots, onions, and celery in the kitchen, some Reddit users mentioned making a soffritto, or a base layer of cooked vegetables and herbs that adds flavor to your sauce (via La Cucina Italiana). People also liked the carrot pulp suggestion because it reduces waste. One person wrote, "Carrots are a natural sweetener. Rounds out the acids in tomato based sauce! Great suggestion using pulp you might otherwise throw away."