Meal Prep with Homemade Tomato Sauce

Homemade Tomato Sauce as a meal hack? When I first made it, it almost seemed too easy. “It’s just tomato sauce,” I thought! Stay with me for a moment here. Simmered with spices like fennel, turmeric and garlic, this sauce is full of flavour and is so good for our health. Prep it on Sundays and I promise, it will rescue weeknight dinner, many times over.

I have been making my own tomato sauce for a long time. It started one summer when I bought a bucket of fresh tomatoes, and since then I have never looked back. Of course with all my Indian cooking like this paneer makhani, homemade pizza, bolognese, wraps and more, I put it to good use.

Real-Life Tips

• Add in grated zucchini, carrots or whatever other vegetables you have on hand and you can use this sauce in all kinds of pasta and stews.
• I blanch the tomatoes to peel the skin off. The flavour and texture is far superior, The skin is also harder for many people to digest, so if your kids (or you) have a sensitivity to tomatoes, eliminate them from your diet for a week and then reintroduce without the skin.
• I cook the tomato sauce with fennel seeds, garlic and turmeric. These spices are great for our mental and physical health. You can totally customize this with what you have on hand – bay leaves, oregano, basil all work really well here.
• The turmeric adds its signature golden colour which may look a little odd in tomato sauce. I add balsamic vinegar to offset that and make sure it “looks” how it’s supposed to 🙂

Tomato Sauce Hack

I make a big batch of this tomato sauce on Sunday afternoons and freeze it in separate jars for the next little while. During the week, thaw a jar out and use it as a core ingredient in another dish to shorten the cook time, for example in stews and curries. Alternatively, you could use it as a spread in wraps and sandwiches, or for a boost of flavour and nutrition in homemade pizza.

Convinced, yet? You will be when you try this recipe out.

Homemade Tomato Sauce Recipe

Print Recipe

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 10 Tomatoes medium sized
• 10 cloves Garlic
• 2 tsp Fennel seeds
• 2 tsp Turmeric
• 2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 tbsp Ghee or oil

Instructions

• Cover tomatoes in water in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan
  
• Let boil and to then turn to simmer.
• Take tomatoes out in 3-4 minutes. You’ll see the wrinkles appear slowly. Some may even form cracks in the skin. This is good – it will help pop the skin off.
  
• Let the tomatoes cool and then use your fingers to peel the skin off.
• Add oil or ghee to a heavy-bottomed pan
• Add garlic and fennel seeds and let them sputter
• Add peeled whole tomatoes in there along with all the other ingredients.
• Squeeze the tomato skins between the palms of your hands to get the last drop of pulp.
• Turn to high and boil once.
• Turn to simmer and cook for 30 mins.
• Use the immersion blender at the end to liquefy into a puree.
• Pour into serving size jars and refrigerate. I use reused jam jars.
• If not using with 5 days, freeze.