Best Tomato Sauce Ever

I know I‘m not the only one who dreads feeding the troops midweek, actually sometimes at the weekends as well. Supposedly, salmon or chicken salad seven days of the week is not quite up to the standard my family are apparently so accustomed to. Notions!!!!

With Junior being dairy free most of the dinners in our house are dairy free. I’ll admit some cheese is often tossed on one side of my plate, but not for now as weight loss attempts continue. There’s also the exception of our pre-mashed potatoes because life is too short to be standing around peeling and mashing anything, right? Granted Junior gets his own sweet potato whipped up in a steamer in the microwave. 

We end up consuming copious amounts of tomato-based dinners, they just freeze so well and are great for reheating midweek. A neighbour of a friend of a colleague, (still with me?) passed around a most delicious recipe for tomato sauce loaded with veggies. They’ve christened it Foxy Sauce. Don’t ask me where the name came from as I’ve no idea, but doesn‘t it sound fun?

The best thing about this sauce is that it‘s loaded with tasty vegetables and can transform any bland dinner. It‘s a great sauce for filling your little ones with vegetables that they may not otherwise eat. Use it as a pizza base, a pasta sauce with chicken or salmon or even as a sauce for pork. Having batches in the freezer that can be popped into the microwave means you always have a wholesome tasty dinner within minutes. 

Ingredients for tomato veggie sauce:

Note: the larger amounts are for using 2 litres of passata.

• 1 onion chopped finely
• 1 | 2 Celery sticks
• 2 | 3 carrots
• 1 | 2 sweet red peppers
• The world of garlic, or just as much as you like
• 2 teaspoons of mixed herbs
• 1 | 2 courgettes
• mushrooms if you fancy them (don’t worry Dad, mine never have mushrooms in it 😉 )
• 1 | 2 litres of passata
• Basil

Method for cooking up Foxy Sauce

1. I pop the carrots into a steamer in the microwave for 3 mins first as I can never get them cooked enough when frying.
2. Fry up the onions, celery and sweet red peppers until the onions are soft
3. Add the garlic, mixed herbs, courgettes and mushrooms
4. Add in either 1 or 2 litres of passata
5. Simmer for 20 to 30 mins until all the veg is soft
6. Season with pepper and salt to taste and add some basil
7. Blitz it all up
8. Once it’s cooled you can store in the freezer.