Versatile Homemade Tomato Sauce Recipe

There aren't too many people that I know that wouldn't enjoy either a hearty serve of pasta, soup, vegetable stew or dahl. So what do all of these delicious dishes have in common? My very versatile home-made tomato sauce recipe of course! This is your lucky day, as I would like to share this awesome staple recipe with you. The bonus with this sauce recipe is that it doesn't take too long to make (you won't need to spend hours and hours in the kitchen), it's delicious, it will save you time during the week when you are cooking the family meals and you know what healthy, preservative free ingredients you are serving to your loved ones.

You can't get much better than that!

Ingredients:

5 kg ripe tomatoes

1/2 cup vinegar

2 large brown onions

1 teaspoon ghee (or olive oil if preferred)

1 large head of garlic, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons turmeric and ginger (these can be finely grated fresh or powdered)

2 teaspoons of black pepper, salt paprika and curry powder

2 chillies finely chopped (add more or less depending on how hot they are and to your taste)

1 large bunch of fresh mixed herbs. If not available a mix of dried herbs is also fine (choose what is in season or what you enjoy)

Depending on what type of tomatoes you use and how sweet they are, you may wish to add some sugar. Add to taste.

I use a lot of spice and make the sauce quite strong in flavour, which gives the option to add either more fresh tomatoes or other ingredients (depending on which dish we are going to make) without compromising the flavour.

Method:

Wash and chop the tomatoes. In a large saucepan, heat up the ghee and gently brown the onion, chilli and garlic until soft and aromatic (if you are using fresh ginger and turmeric you can add these at the same time). Add the chopped tomatoes and vinegar, gently bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes will produce sufficient fluid so there is no need to add water.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer. Add all the other spices. Continue to simmer for approximately one hour, or until the liquid has reduced. Add the mixed herbs about 15 minutes before finishing.

Preparation:

While the sauce is cooking gather all your spare sauce jars (the large pasta sauce ones work well). Clean thoroughly and dry in the oven. Wash the lids and rinse in apple cider vinegar.

Once the sauce has slightly cooled scoop the mixture into the warm-hot jars. Shake excess vinegar from the lid and seal firmly.

This sauce will not keep for a long time. We usually make a batch every 2-3 months and keep it in the cupboard. It will keep longer in the fridge or alternately you can put into plastic containers and freeze in meal size portions.