No tomato Marinara

           

It looks and tastes enough like the real thing to fool anyone!  And with all the genetic altering being done to tomatoes, this is probably a much safer alternative to the original sauce. 

Hint: You can make this sauce for another dish (such as a tomato-free ratatouille, or as a sauce over stir-fried vegetables and quinoa or baked spaghetti squash for an unrefined and wholesome alternative to pasta) and freeze half of it for a ready-to-go pizza sauce to be used on another day.

V-, P+, K-

2 acorn squash or other squash with orange flesh (or one pound of carrots)

1 beet without top

2 bay leaves

1 quart pure water

1 to 2 cloves garlic minced (optional)

½ cup tender leeks, chopped

2 tbsp organic olive oil

Sea salt to taste (optional)

Juice from one half lemon (optional)

½ cup chopped fresh basil or 2 tbsp dried

2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried

½ cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 tbsp dried

½ - 1 tsp thyme

Cut squash in half, place cut side down on cookie sheet and bake 30 minutes in a 350 F preheated oven.  Cool to handle, peel and cube or peel and cube one pound carrots.  Peel and cube beet.  Place squash/carrots, beets and bay leaves in large pot with enough water to cover all pieces and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.  While cooking, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent.  Remove bay leaves and place all ingredients, except lemon juice, in blender or food processor and process until well combined and desired texture is achieved.  Return to pot and cook another 10 minutes to combine flavours.  Add lemon juice to serve.

Variations

Add 2 cups rice beverage or unsweetened soy milk and serve as a creamy soup.

Serve over brown rice pasta, spelt or kamut pasta or, better yet, whole grain quinoa, brown rice or spaghetti squash (which, after baking, separates into spaghetti-like strands).

Add sweet peppers, cumin, chilli peppers and kidney beans or crumbled tofu and serve as you would chilli.

Use as a sauce for pizza on a crust made from barley flour (see above recipe), a wheat-free chapatti or whole grain yeast-free bread, (such as Little Stream’s wheat-free brown rice bread). 

For pizza sauce, you can decrease the amount of basil to one tbsp and increase the amount of oregano to 2 tsp (dried) or more.  You can also add more thyme as well as ¼ tsp of marjoram.   Pour sauce onto baked crust and spread it over the whole surface, covering it as thinly or thickly as you like.  Next, chop yellow zucchini into rounds and place as you would pepperoni.  Green zucchini can be cut into moon shapes, shitake mushrooms can be chopped into small pieces.  Now you can grate organic mozzarella cheese or for a more easily digestible and dairy-free pizza, you can add the sweetness of grated carrots in its place.  Broccoli is a delicious calcium-rich addition when first chopped and blanched), that is, placed in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes), Red pepper is also a nice addition.  In place of onion, chop tender leeks and sauté in olive oil.  Now arrange the toppings any way you like.  This is a fun thing for kids to help with.  Be creative!  Add lots of veggies to your pizza!  Have fun with shapes and colours!  Put the pizza in the oven and bake at 425 F for 10 – 12 minutes.  A fun way to eat at home!