Nightshade-Free Marinara Sauce

For those craving tomato sauce for pizza, spaghetti, etc. patricialynne07 found this recipe at allergyfreemenuplanners.com. She adapted it to make it IC friendly. It is a time consuming recipe, lots of peeling, and simmering the beets until they get soft which took longer than 25 minutes (more like 40 minutes). She gives it: ★ ★ ★ ★

Nightshade-free Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced (if tolerated)
1-2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
5 carrots, sliced
1-2 medium beet, peeled and diced into small-medium chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 -2 cups water or stock (without problem ingredients)
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (if tolerated)


Directions:

1. Sauté the onions in oil in a medium to large sauté pan. It helps to have something that has a lid. Cook onions until soft, about 5-8 minutes. Add the carrots, beet chunks and about 3/4-1 cup water. The smaller you make the beets, the faster they will cook.

2. Cover and cook veggies over medium-low heat or at a simmer. Cook until the beets are soft, about 20-25 minutes. Check on them periodically to make sure there is still some water in the pan and they are not burning.

3. When beets are cooked through, add about 1/2-1 cups more water, herbs, salt and pepper. Using a hand blender (or transferring to a blender), blend veggies with water until smooth. Add more water if needed to make a marinara-like consistency. Add more herbs or salt to taste. If you would like some tang, add the lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to make it more acidic like tomato sauce.

This keeps well in the fridge and it makes a pretty big batch. I’ve been using some for dinner the night I make it, then freezing half the batch in a couple containers for future use. However, it keeps in the fridge for over a week.