This nightshade free marinara sauce is the epitome of natural gourmet. Enjoy it over pasta or freeze it and you'll have tomato-free sauce for your favorite recipes.
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Red sauce is one of the five mother sauces so if you can't have tomatoes, there are countless implications (e.g. no chili, pasta marinara, pizza, plus no condiments like ketchup and barbecue sauce to name a few).
🧂 Seasoning
When you think about what makes a red sauce, it's the acidity, depth, and freshness. For my nomato version, we season with garlic, onion, dried basil and oregano, and salt.
Rather than browning the ingredients which can add a bittersweet taste, I recommend sautéing the onions and garlic in plenty of olive oil. In place of tomatoes, there are a variety of mellow, sweet vegetables that ultimately lack acidity on their own (but are, nevertheless, there for texture and nutrition).
💭 Top tips
- In testing this sauce, I like the combination of red wine vinegar in the beginning to deglaze and then lemon juice right at the end until the flavor of the sauce dances on the tongue.
- Please for the love of god, you must salt your food at the beginning of the cooking process. Your cooking will never reach it's full potential if you don't.
- Fresh herbs, such as the Italian herbs listed above, should be added only when serving as they are delicate and will lose their aroma when cooked.
🔪 Instructions
While you could make this sauce quickly in the instant pot or on the stovetop, a slow cooker will babysit your ingredients (for 5 or 6 hours) while you walk away and come back to FLAVOR.
When the vegetables are tender, you can easily blend them directly in the slow cooker if you have an immersion blender. If you need to transfer to a blender, you can do this in batches. Just be sure to cover the lid of the blender with a kitchen towel so as not to burn yourself.
What's truly interesting about this sauce is how novel AND familiar it is at the same time. As you might expect, there's an earthiness right out of the slow cooker but this sauce somehow tastes even better the next day with a little added salt and lemon juice.
Ultimately, this is not a true likeness to a tomato sauce. It is, however, a brand new and exciting way to enjoy carrots and beets. I can honestly say it's going to be a staple in my diet (AIP or no AIP) indefinitely because I love when food tastes good and is good for me.
🥘 Ingredients
- extra virgin olive oil
- onions: yellow or white
- garlic cloves: 12 cloves or 12 teaspoons of minced garlic
- sea salt: especially good for sauce making is Celtic gray sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper (optional): omit if in the elimination phase of AIP
- red wine vinegar: check the ingredients to avoid buying one with preservatives
- 3 bay leaves: adds a slightly floral depth of flavor; must be removed before blending
- carrots: best substitute would be parsnips
- butternut squash: any pumpkin will work as a substitute
- beets: orange-yellow beets will work but red will give the sauce a reddish hue
- Italian herbs (oregano, marjoram, thyme, basil, and parsley): dried or fresh may be used
- lemons: used to impart an acidic quality to the sauce at the end
🎥 Video
📋 Recipe
I aspire to add canning instructions at some point in the future. If you pressure can this recipe please let us know how it turns out!
Big Batch Nomato Sauce {AIP Nightshade Free Marinara}
Ingredients
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions large dice
- 12 garlic cloves chopped
- 2 teaspoons sea salt plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper omit for AIP
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 3 bay leaves for nuanced flavor
- 4 cups water
- 4 medium carrots peeled, large (¾-inch) dice
- 1 medium butternut squash peeled, large (¾-inch) dice
- 2 large beets peeled, large (¾-inch) dice
- 2 tablespoons dried Italian herbs oregano, marjoram, thyme, basil, and parsley
- 4 lemons juiced
Instructions
- Sweat the aromatics. In a slow cooker on the saute setting, begin the process of sweating by combining the olive oil, yellow onions, garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir occasionally until you see the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Deglaze with the red wine vinegar.
- Braise veggies. Select the low heat setting on your slow cooker then layer in the bay leaves, water, carrots, squash, and beets. Slowly cooking fresh vegetable in a braising liquid is a great way to build layers of flavor for sauce making.
- Immersion blend and finish seasoning sauce. Your vegetables need to be tender and how long this takes depends on your slow cooker. Once you can easily pierce each vegetable, remove the 3 bay leaves then use an immersion blender to puree into a thick sauce. Stir in the Italian herbs and the lemon juice to taste. If the beet flavor is overpowering, you can add more salt. Ladle the sauce into mason jars and refrigerate for up to 5 days or cool and freeze in airtight bags for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
🥗 Side dishes
If serving this vegetable-based sauce over cassava pasta or zoodles, consider adding a protein side like these baked pork and beef meatballs. For garnish, I love fresh basil, freshly ground black pepper (if tolerated), or a combination of parsley-olives-capers for a puttanesca spaghetti squash dish.
📖 Variations
celery: try adding up to 2 celery stalks
carrots: If you have a carrot allergy, I suggest parsnips, which are similar in flavor and texture, as a substitute.
olives or capers: boost the acidity to add even more body to the sauce just before serving
meat: after blending, you could make these baked meatballs or try adding grass-fed ground beef directly to the sauce and simmering until fully cooked
red wine: if you like a ragout sauce, you could try replacing half of the water with red wine
fish sauce: just like with classic red sauce, you can add depth (not particularly a fishy flavor) by incorporating a tiny amount of fish sauce or an anchovy
👪 Serving size
A serving of 1 cup cooked pasta would get about ½ cup pasta sauce. This recipe yields = 14 cups or 28 (½-cup) portions.
🍽 Equipment
I recommend a slow cooker aka crock pot that also has the sauté setting. If using an instant pot, you will use the "slow cook" settings. If you want to make this recipe on the stovetop, you can try making it in an enamel coated large Dutch oven with the lid on and set the heat to low.
sara says
I've had this sauce several times and it seems to last a really long time in the refrigerator. My whole family loves it, even though it's really different than tomato-based marinara.