If you haven’t heard of nomato sauce, it’s basically a tomato-less pasta sauce. Why would anyone want a pasta sauce without tomato? That’s exactly what I thought when I first came upon a recipe for nomato sauce. Turns out a lot of people have issues with nightshades like tomatoes (nightshades also include but aren’t limited to white potatoes, peppers and eggplant). I was shocked when I started having issues eating tomatoes. It’s something that I ate regularly throughout my life without incident. They seem like such a benign food but effect a lot of people. If you’re on the autoimmune protocol diet, tomatoes (and all nightshades) are initially removed from your diet. I’m hoping that I will be able to reintroduce tomatoes but in the meantime, I’m really happy to have this Nomato Sauce.
This recipe could take a lot of time to prep if you are cooking and peeling beets and cutting up a whole butternut squash. Before I had a kid, I would have gladly spent the time to save money and ensure the freshest ingredients. However, I just don’t have that kind of time to spend in the kitchen right now. To cut down prep time, I used precooked and peeled beets and precut butternut squash (from Trader Joe’s).
Nomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Onion chopped
- 4 Garlic cloves crushed
- 4 large Carrots chopped into chunks
- 2 cups Butternut Squash peeled and cubed (I buy prepacked squash at Trader Joe’s)
- 4 small precooked Beets peeled and chopped (I buy prepacked beets at Trader Joe’s)
- 1 tablespoon Homemade Italian Seasonings
- 1 teaspoon Salt plus additional for serving
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Pepper plus additional for serving optional for AIP diet
- 1 1/2 cups Slow Cooker Chicken Broth or Vegetable Broth Homemade is best!
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a stockpot over medium high heat.
- Next add your onion and garlic then cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots, squash, beets, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper and stock to the pot and then cover and bring to the boil
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until your carrots and pumpkin are soft.
- Once your veggies are soft, use an immersion blender or regular blender to combine them until your sauce reaches your desired consistency. At this point the sauce will be very hot so take care when blending so you don’t burn yourself.
- Use immediately with your favorite pasta or spiralized vegetable or freeze until you are ready to use.
Nutrition
Does this nomato sauce have a strong beet taste?
Nope. Not at all. I’m not really a beet lover so I won’t recipes that have a strong beet flavor.
Would this taste ok without garlic and onions? I can’t have either.
Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never tried them without onions or garlic. There are a variety of veggies so it may still taste good just a little bland. My suggestion would be to experiment. Consider adding a bit of grated ginger, a bay leaf or fennel as a substitute.