March 01, 2016
Homemade Tomato Sauce
When you have too many garden or farmer's market tomatoes to use, make this Homemade Tomato Sauce! It can be canned or frozen and tastes just as fresh as when you made it!
The last two years, Troy and I have been so lucky to have a very successful garden. We do not have a large garden, in fact, it is very small. What we do have is incredible soil that somehow produces tons and tons of tomatoes from just 6 plants.
Two years ago (when I was very, very pregnant), we made lots of salsa. We made three huge batches and are finally down to the last 4 jars. We had about 30 quarts of salsa!! Since we had so much salsa canned from the previous year, we wanted to do something else with the tomatoes.
This past summer, I made three extra large batches of tomato sauce. I canned most of it and when I ran out of Mason jars, I started freezing it in ziplock bags. We have been using this sauce in everything! I use it in soups, for pasta sauce, for crockpot meals, Italian dinners and more.
I love knowing exactly what is in my sauce and remembering each time how we made the sauce together this summer and grew the tomatoes ourselves! It is a labor of love and I am glad that the sauce turned out so well.
Food processed tomatoes- leave them chunky for a textured sauce!
The trick that I learned from the last year is to cook the heck out of the sauce to make it better. In previous years, I did not cook down the sauce enough and it was too watery. This time, I let it cook for a couple of hours to let as much water evaporate as possible to make a thicker sauce.
Each batch that I made varied some. One, I accidentally made too spicy- we use this one sparingly and will do one jar of this and one jar of non-spicy. One, I made more garlicky. They all taste great so make it however you like.
Carrots and onions blended
I use carrots and onions in mine for more flavor and the carrots help to thicken it up. I also do bell peppers sometimes. You can always cook in mushrooms, spinach, zucchini and more.
Homemade Tomato Sauce
Cook Time: 1-2 hours
Ingredients
- 4 pounds of tomatoes, cored and quartered
- 1 pound of carrots, cut into large bite sized pieces
- 2 onions, peeled and quartered
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon basil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- Optional: crushed red pepper
Instructions
1. In a food processor, blend carrots and onions. Add to largest pot you have.
1. In a food processor, blend carrots and onions. Add to largest pot you have.
2. Add tomatoes to food processor and blend until tomatoes are in bite sized pieces but still chunky. Add to pot.
3. Add garlic and spices to pot and stir well.
4. Cook sauce for 1-2 hours (depending on how juicy your tomatoes were) and stir frequently. Do not let burn.
5. Once sauce is done, turn off the heat and let sauce cool. When it is room temperature, you can put it in containers or bags and freeze. If you are canning the sauce, put sauce in mason jars when hot and can according to directions.
Enjoy!
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***I like the skins on my tomatoes, if you do not, you can always peel them before cooking.
***You can use store-bought tomatoes year round for this recipe but of course, summer tomatoes taste the best.
Check out The Nutritionist Reviews Salads and Vegetables Pinterest board for more healthy and fun recipe ideas!
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