Time to get saucy! With 95% Sugar Free Tomato Sauce (ketchup for my American friends)

When I first started this whole sugar free business, I said to myself  ‘I don’t have a sweet tooth, this is going to be easy!’

I found my issue wasn’t with sweets and desserts but actually all the foods that have ‘secret’ processed sugars. Here’s a surprising list for you.

• Fruit. Sure fruit is a ‘healthy’ sugar, but still a sugar which is why I try not to eat fruit after 11am. I believe that because I exercise in the morning my body copes better fighting sugar then.
• Honey. Honey from the stores in actually very processed and has a lot of added sugar. If you need honey, try going with unprocessed raw honey. You can get these from all your favorite urban hippie stores.
• Dried fruit. Full of processed sugar!
• Breakfast cereal. Yep even the healthy muesli types, don’t be fooled by brown packaging. I am constantly.
• Your tomato sauce (ketchup)!

Now that last one really got to me. When my brother and I were growing up we were fussy eaters and were addicted to the stuff.  We put it on everything, steaks, chicken, chilli, sandwiches, cheese and my favourite, eggs!  Now I’ve grown up (just a little) I tend not to need it that much anymore. Still, I do crave it! So after a lot of testing (and tasting) I’ve perfected my

       95% Sugar Free Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
Ingredients 

and thanks to the Subi markets for supplying this bag of tomatoes at the low price of $2.50!

Roasting Stage:
1 kilo of tomatoes, halved. This is actually a great way to use up old tomatoes; the riper the better!
3 cloves of garlic. I like to smash mine with the flat side of a butcher knife before I roast them.
1 glug of olive oil
Plenty of salt and pepper

Sauce Stage:
1 brown onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil leaves
2 tablespoons salt reduced tomato paste.

Method: 

Roast tomatoes in the oven (180 degrees) with garlic for about 20-30 minutes. You want to make sure they are not too burnt and just brown around the edges.  Once roasted, place tomatoes in a bowl and let them rest – if you don’t want to do this step you really don’t have to, but if you can, they release a lot of juices and everyone wants their life to be more juicy  😉   

In a pot, saute onion and garlic together on a low heat until soft – if the onion starts to stick to the bottom of the pan just put in some water instead of adding more oil, saves on calories, not time. 
Add in roasted tomato, tomato paste and dried basil leaves and simmer – if it’s really dry at this stage add in some water and boil it down.
Now this next part is up to you!  I tend to get a fork and just mash it together to get a really ‘hand-made’ – aka lazy – look, but you can also blend it to make it super smooth, which looks quite impressive!
The sauce can be served hot or cold. When you serve it cold it tastes just like tomato sauce! When you serve it warm it gets quite a strong rich garlic flavour.

 

A huge thanks to Elise for taking this photo for me!  I owe you a cheeky beverage 😉

It’s taken me a long time to perfect this recipe, so let me know what you think!
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Talk to ya later

-Megan