Fresh Harvest Vegetable Marinara Sauce
This is the FIRST OFFICIAL recipe I have cooked in my new kitchen!!!!
We still have a few little repairs that need to be finished before it is completely done, but I can start creating new recipes and get back into my love of cooking now that I don’t have to cook in my laundry room anymore. It has been a LONG 8 months.
One of my distractions while waiting on the kitchen to be finished has been tending my vegetable garden…..Having a vegetable garden is fun and rewarding. The challenge is to use up the produce as it fills up the kitchen. So I decided to be creative and see how many of the vegetables from our garden I could use up in one recipe. I combined our garden veggies with a few things added from our local farmer’s market and cooked up a batch of vegetarian pasta sauce.
Ingredients
2 Tbs olive oil
2 onions
5 cloves garlic
6 carrots
5 stalks celery
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup fresh basil
1 cup fresh parsley
3 cups spinach
10 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbs sugar
2 (28 oz) cans organic crushed tomatoes
I washed all the vegetables and starting with the onions, I cut them each into chunks and used my Cuisinart to finely chop each vegetable one type at a time. I put a large pot on medium heat and added 2-3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onions, garlic, celery, carrots and saute until vegetables are soft, 5-10 minutes. Stir regularly so vegetables do not stick. Chop the basil, parsley and spinach and add to the large pot and stir another 5 minutes. Add 2 cans of organic crushed tomatoes and fresh tomatoes that have been chopped into chunks in the cuisinart. Add the salt, sugar and bay leaves and stir for another 5-10 minutes. Transfer the entire contents of the large pot into a 5 quart crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. You can freeze this sauce or use it over pasta, or as your pizza sauce. It is full of anti-inflammation foods so you get this added benefit as well.
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 2 onions
- 5 cloves garlic
- 6 carrots
- 5 stalks celery
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ cup fresh basil
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- 3 cups spinach
- 10 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 2 (28 oz) cans organic crushed tomatoes
- I washed all the vegetables and starting with the onions, I cut them each into chunks and used my Cuisinart to finely chop each vegetable one type at a time.
- I put a large pot on medium heat and added 2-3 tablespoons olive oil.
- Add the onions, garlic, celery, carrots and saute until vegetables are soft, 5-10 minutes.
- Stir regularly so vegetables do not stick.
- Chop the basil, parsley and spinach and add to the large pot and stir another 5 minutes.
- Add 2 cans of organic crushed tomatoes and fresh tomatoes that have been chopped into chunks in the cuisinart.
- Add the salt, sugar and bay leaves and stir for another 5-10 minutes.
- Transfer the entire contents of the large pot into a 5 quart crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. You can freeze this sauce or use it over pasta, or as your pizza sauce.
- It is full of anti-inflammation foods so you get this added benefit as well.
What creative recipes have you tried, to make the best use of your garden vegetables?
