I’ve been meaning to post about making tomato sauce and I keep not doing it, so I now have photos from three different occasions to share! I love spaghetti and my grandma’s stovetop bolognese sauce used to be my favorite. Since I stopped eating meat (except fish) and I’m more health conscious, I’ve been trying to come up with my own versions. They vary a lot, but below are three of them!

For the first one, I was trying to sneak a lot of vegetables in. But then Ari wouldn’t even taste it anyway. Oh well, I liked it!

I used a couple of carrots, some celery, onion, garlic, and bell peppers (yellow and red, previously chopped and frozen).

I heated olive oil in the pot…

Turned the heat down…

Sauteed the veggies…

Added chickpeas (for protein, iron, and texture), tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and tomato paste (I think just a spoonful of tomato paste, now I don’t remember whether I used the whole can! I’m awful at this!)…

Added sprinklings of these seasonings: anise, thyme, oregano, and basil. Also a splash of balsamic vinegar. I think the anise and balsamic are kind of the secret ingredients that make a difference. We used to get a spaghetti sauce seasoning mixture from a local grocery store when we lived in Washington, and we finally figured out that what was special about it was the anise.

Some leaves of kale went in there too…

Then I pureed it!

I didn’t photograph the final result. It was quite thick! I really liked it, though, and hardly noticed the extra vegetables, except that I think the bell peppers added a strong flavor.

 

For the second version, I used two cans of tomato sauce and two cans of chickpeas.

We also went up to Washington and stocked up on the spaghetti sauce seasoning mix (with the anise!), so I used that.

Salt and pepper…

Balsamic and olive oil…

The other secret ingredient! It’s amazing how many savory foods have sugar added to commercial versions but I don’t think about it when I’m cooking them at home. I only added a teaspoon or less, but it helps to round out the flavors.

Some whole tomatoes, carrots, onion, kale, and bell peppers…

And fake ground beef, added after the pureeing step! I liked the taste and texture and appreciated the added protein.

 

Finally, the third version. A. had previously chopped up the sweet tomatoes from our garden for a sauce, so I used that.

I didn’t include as many vegetables for this one. I chopped up some onion…

Went the easy route for the garlic…

Sauteed both in olive oil…

I compared the nutrition facts of chickpeas and butter beans and I think I decided to just use the butter beans.

Crushed red pepper…

Added the sauce…

There wasn’t enough, so I added a can of sauce, too…

Turned the heat down…

Added vinegar…

Then a little brown sugar…

The seasoning mix with anise…

Salt…

Another favorite surprise ingredient: nutritional yeast! Vegans often use it as a parmesan cheese substitute or to add “umami” flavor.

Now this makes it not vegetarian, but I also sometimes sprinkle some fish sauce in there, too, for that “umami” flavor.

Gotta get those leafy greens wherever you can, so I added kale…

Then the can of butter beans…

And another favorite salty ingredient: black olives!

This time, instead of pureeing in the blender, I used a stick blender. Sometimes I like to do that, to keep it chunkier.

At the end, I added a different kind of fake ground beef. I think I liked this one better than the other one I tried.

I think A. took over at the end and I played with Ari outside…

Ta da!

Ari wouldn’t even taste the sauce. 😦 I loved it though!