Simple and Delicious Tomato Sauce
This is my super simple recipe for tomato sauce. I always like to keep a jar of this in my fridge ready for easy week night meals. I use it for easy pasta sauces, or in place of canned tomatoes in recipes as a way to incorporate more vegetables and flavour to my meals.
It’s really easy to make and is such a great base for so many meals. I love to serve it plain over pasta, or use it in place of canned tomatoes in a curry, stew or chilli. It’s also delicious served by itself with some home made crusty bread.
Ingredients
This tomato sauce calls for only a few very basic ingredients – a mirepoix of carrot, onion and celery, canned tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic and olive oil.
You can add any other ingredients you like to personalise this sauce.
- For a herby pasta sauce, add 3 tbsp fresh herbs (or 1 tbsp dried) at the end – basil works so well!
- For a creamy sauce, add 1/2 cup (120mL) vegan cream once it’s finished cooking
- For a bit of spice, add 1/2 – 2 tsp chilli flakes, depending on how spicy you like it!
- For a creamier (but still healthy) sauce, add a dollop of hummus and stir through
- For an extra garlicky sauce, add in 5-8 cloves of roasted garlic when you add the canned tomatoes
- To hide even more veggies in, (e.g. a courgette/zucchini) simply grate your veg and add them in when you add the canned tomatoes.
Making the tomato sauce
Making this tomato sauce couldn’t be simpler! For a faster cooking time, I recommend cutting the mirepoix very very small. I aim for cubes that are no bigger than 0.5 cm.
Heat your olive oil on a medium-low heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add in your diced onion, carrots and celery. Sautee for around 10 minutes until the onion begins to turn translucent.
Add in the minced garlic and continue to sautee for another 5 minutes until the garlic is fragrant.
Next, add in the tomato puree and sautee for another 5 minutes until the colour of the puree deepens.
Next, add in your canned plum tomatoes, using a masher or the back of your spoon to break them up in the pan. Continue to simmer the sauce on a low heat for at least 30 minutes until the vegetables have cooked completely and are soft.
Remove from the heat and blend until smooth using a blender or an immersion blender.
If you have time, I recommend continuing to simmer the sauce on a low heat for as long as you can – this will help the flavour of the sauce develop even more. Don’t worry if you don’t have time, you can simply use the sauce now as it is, or store in a jar for later.
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Simple Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 250 g (1 large) Brown Onion, finely diced
- 250 g (3 large) Carrot, finely diced
- 250 g (4-5 large) stalks celery, finely diced
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp Tomato Puree
- 800 g (2 cans) Plum Tomatoes
Instructions
- Start by heating up the olive oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium heat.
- Add the diced carrot, celery and onion. Sautee for 5-10 minutes, until the onion begins to turn translucent.
- Add in the minced garlic and sautee for a further 5 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the tomato puree and fry for another few minutes until the tomato puree has deepened in colour.
- Add in the plum tomatoes and use either a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon, break the tomatoes up
- Simmer together for at least 30 minutes, but the longer the better, up to a few hours.
- When finished cooking, use a blender to blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately, or transfer to an air-tight glass jar and store in the fridge for up to a week (or longer if you sterilise your jar)