This Homemade Heart-Healthy Marinara Sauce recipe is not only low in sodium, but also vegan, paleo, and gluten free. Made with fresh, real ingredients, this hearty sauce is the best you’ll ever try!
This recipe for Homemade Heart-Healthy Marinara Sauce uses only real, fresh ingredients making it not only hearty and delicious, but also low in sodium, paleo, and gluten free! Ripe tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, fresh garlic, a host of spices, and a secret ingredient make this marinara stand out above the rest. It’s a lot like your grandma’s homemade sauce, only healthier!
Truly Homemade Heart-Healthy Marinara Sauce
This Heart-Healthy Marinara Sauce is simpler to make that you might imagine and it’s so delightful that you’ll want to make a big batch to freeze. Whether you’re cooking spaghetti, lasagna, shells, or pizza, this is the sauce you’ll want to use from now on. Its robust flavor pairs perfectly with any Italian dish and you’ll feel good knowing that you are using a raw, healthy sauce that your family will love.
Making the sauce is as simple as washing and rough chopping your vegetables, pulsing them in the blender, and pouring all of that into your slow cooker with some added spices, then waiting a few hours for the deliciousness to be ready for your favorite pasta meal. This is a superb way to get your picky little eaters to eat fresh vegetables without them even knowing!
Ingredients
- 8 large tomatoes or 16 Roma tomatoes
- 2 small sweet peppers or 1 red bell pepper if you prefer
- 1/4 cup chopped onion or 6 green onions (just the white part)
- 3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
- Fresh basil, chopped, to taste
- Fresh parsley, chopped, to taste
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 1-2 tbsp corn starch
Instructions
- Place chopped tomatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic in a blender, and pulse to desired consistency.
- If you like a chunky sauce, do not blend one of the tomatoes, and just finely hand-dice that one instead.
- Pour tomato mixture into a slow cooker, and the diced tomatoes if you are using them.
- Add chopped basil and parsley, stir, then add in the 2 bay leaves.
- Cover and simmer on low for 4-6 hours.
- If you find that your sauce is too thin after simmering (it will depend on how juicy your tomatoes are), simply make a thick paste with some corn starch and water and mix it into the sauce, allowing a little time to thicken before serving.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: To reduce the acid in any tomato-based sauce, add a quarter of a can of light beer while cooking.
We hope you love this Homemade Heart-Healthy Marinara Sauce recipe as much as we do. If you enjoyed this simple and flavorful meal idea, find more like it by visiting our Slow Cooker and Low Sodium sections. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so that you never miss a single recipe and for daily recipe inspiration, like us on Facebook and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply