Ten grams of sugar in 1/2 a cup!
And, let's be honest. Rarely did I eat just half a cup. I am a drown-your-noodle-spaghetti-sauce-soup, kind of girl. There were some pricey, sophisticated sauce options with lower sugar contents, but I was trying to budget for a move and a house and future children so I barely gave them a glance.
Ten ... errrr, 20 ... grams of sugar for me it was.
Fast forward a few years. Now that we have kids, I just can't justify putting that much sugar on their dinner plates and we still can't afford the pricier brands. Solution? Make my own spaghetti sauce! I set out to come up with a good red sauce recipe with three thoughts in mind:
- It would need to be mild in taste because garlic wards off toddlers almost as well as it fends off vampires.
- It should incorporate several vegetables because - again - "O" and his whole "no carrots" deal.
- Also, could it pack in at least a little protein? Don't get me wrong! Some nights, when the
bansheessmall children have worn me down to a skeleton of who I was 12 hours earlier, "noodles + tomatoes" sounds like a well-balanced meal. But, I could probably give at least a polite nod to protein with this sauce.
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 approx. 14 oz can of diced tomatoes and juices
1/4 cup lentils
1 1/4 cups broth
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp majoram
1/4 tsp fennel
1/8 - 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Sweat the onion, garlic, and carrots with a drizzle of olive oil + 1/4 teaspoon salt. Once the onions become translucent, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on low - the longer the better! I like to make this during nap time when I know we will not be going anywhere while the baby sleeps. When baby is tired, everyone is tired. I simmer for 2 hours then set aside to reheat for dinner.
Makes enough for 1 box of spaghetti.
Sweat the onion, garlic, and carrots with a drizzle of olive oil + 1/4 teaspoon salt. Once the onions become translucent, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on low - the longer the better! I like to make this during nap time when I know we will not be going anywhere while the baby sleeps. When baby is tired, everyone is tired. I simmer for 2 hours then set aside to reheat for dinner.
Makes enough for 1 box of spaghetti.
Some ideas you could play around with -- I'm a big fan of the three ingredient sauce (dump whole canned tomatoes with juice, a quartered onion, and 2-3 tbs of butter or olive oil in a pan, cooked down until the onion is soft, and then use a stick blender or similar to puree it all together; alternatively, pull out the onion and mash up the tomatoes). The fat content mellows out the sharp / acidic tomato flavor that you would normally need sweetness and herbs to cover. Whole tomatoes break down better than diced... there is something in diced that helps them keep their firmness / shape (but I forget what). From that basic recipe, you can start adding your variations and flavors (herbs, veggies, etc). Another thing I learned was that a tiny splash of vodka brightens the tomato flavor (they taste fresher), and it will cook off if you add it at the beginning. You may find that you can drastically reduce the work on your sauce above with a couple of tweaks :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and if you puree a small amount of bread in, it will increase the "creamy" factor without needing dairy. Something about helping with the oil emulsion. (From Serious Eats)
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