Clean Eating Tomato Sauce Recipe (Made With Fresh Tomatoes)

Better & Healthier than store-bought, this clean eating tomato sauce is made with fresh tomatoes. Plant extra in the garden to make big batches of this home made tomato sauce and the freeze to enjoy during the winter.

I came up with this recipe when the tomatoes in my garden were ripening faster than I could use them, and many were starting to over ripen. So I decided to turn them into a healthy, preservative-free homemade, clean eating tomato sauce. The first time I made this, my husband and  I enjoyed a late supper in the dining room with this clean eating tomato sauce served over rice pasta – and a “splash” of red wine on our glasses :). Dimmed the lights and ate by candlelight listening to Led Zeppelin. Husband thought it was really good. I did too.  I’ve left out the sage at times when I didn’t have it, and I’ve also used dried herbs (winged the quantity) when I didn’t have fresh.

A healthy, homemade, low-sodium clean eating tomato sauce for pasta, rice, lasagna, and so much more!  Say goodbye to store bought sauces packed with additives, preservatives, sodium, way too much sugar,

and other ‘bad guys’!

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups chopped onion
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 ½ tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
• 3 ½ cups over-ripe  fresh tomatoes, chopped up)
• 2 small cans tomato paste
• 2 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth (or water, which I wouldn’t personally recommend)
• 1 bay leaf
• sea salt to taste (or can be omitted)
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil (1 tsp dried)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon fresh thyme (pinch dried thyme)
• ¼ teaspoon dried sage
• Pinch of red pepper flakes, to taste

Instructions

1. Gently saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until onion is clear and begins to brown, stirring often.
2. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, bay leaf, and pepper. Simmer uncovered about two hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the herbs and continue cooking about 15 more minutes. Remove the bay leaf. The sauce should be thick. Add browned meat of choice if a meat sauce is desired, pour over pasta, serve with meatballs, use in lasagna or chicken parmesan, or just eat it with a spoon!

Note:  The recipe called for fresh basil, but I substitute dried – when converting fresh basil to dried, most experts suggest using twice the amount of fresh as you would dried, so tsp fresh basil = 1 tsp dried.  This handy conversion chart shows the conversions  from fresh to dried for other popular herbs