From Scratch No-Salt Tomato Sauce

This is the sauce I made quickly from scratch to go with the Brilliant No-Salt Chicken (this blog, June 2009). I decided to reproduce it here as a standalone recipe since it turned out so great. This tomato sauce leaves the sugar and salt behind, but definitely not the flavour!

• 1 small organic yellow onion, skinned and chopped
• 2 sections (the small little bulbs from the clove) organic garlic, skinned and pressed
• 4 roma tomatos, sliced thinly
• 50 g (or about 2 ounces) fresh basil, chopped
• Organic olive oil (enough to lightly coat bottom of two medium-sized skillets)

Heat skillet with oil over low-medium heat. Add chopped onion and pressed garlic and sautee for a few minutes, until garlic and onion become just slightly transparent. Add sliced roma tomatos and stir well to mix; gently sautee for around 10 minutes. Add chopped fresh basil (I used approx. half of a Trader Joe's container of fresh basil). Stir well and sautee for another several minutes, until you get a "stewed tomato" texture. Change to lower heat setting if mixture starts to look too dry. Keep a lid handy for use in between stirs.

Remove from heat to cool slightly and serve immediately. Great over chicken or pasta, or as part of another recipe that requires tomato sauce.

Quick Savory Meat and/or Veggie Sauce

Here's an easy way to spruce up either a canned or jarred store-bought sauce quickly and easily:

• 1 large can Trader Joe's organic tomato sauce (can use any plain-jane tomato sauce that has no other ingredients)
• 2 celery stalks, sliced thinly (use scissors for speed)
• 1 medium zucchini, grated
• 1 tb agave nectar* (used to reduce acidity; can also try a few pinches baking soda)
  
• 1 tsp sea salt

Optional:

• 1 lb organic ground beef, turkey, tofu, etc
• Garlic, chopped, to taste

Place all ingredients aside from meat into medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir over heat until celery becomes soft. Cook meat and/or garlic if using, and stir it into sauce. Use for topping pastas, lasagna, etc. Refrigerate unused portion.

Quick Non-Dairy, No Gluten White Sauce

Here is a white sauce that uses no dairy and no gluten at all.  The way I make it, it is vegan, but  you can experiment with the ingredients as you like, using whatever suits.  My system doesn't like dairy (at all) and does better without too much gluten.

• 1 c milk (I use unsweetened almond milk, sometimes mixing in a little coconut milk)
• 1 tb tapioca flour

Heat milk over low-medium heat until warm, then turn heat up to medium.  Remove several tablespoons of the warmed liquid into small bowl and add tapioca flour, mixing until smooth.  Return mixture to pan on medium heat, stirring just until boiling point (it should thicken a bit), then remove from heat.

Use this with any recipe calling for a white sauce.  You may use any multiple of the ingredients (i.e., 2 c milk and 2 tb tapioca flour, etc), add seasoning, herbs and chicken and mix with pasta, etc.  Very easy and versatile, and if you stir in sweetener (to your taste) to the above recipe with some vanilla extract while heating, you'll have a quick vanilla pudding for dessert.  Also try adding cocoa powder (stir in while heating) or adding fresh fruit once cooled.  Refrigerate unused portion.  No limits on what you can do with this.