Total cooking time: 40–50 minutes; Effort time: 15 minutes; Makes about 2 cups.
This recipe is gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and vegan.
- 4 (350 g/0.8 lbs) tomatoes
- 3 (620 g/1.4 lbs) red capsicums (peppers)
- 1 small bulb garlic (about 6-8 cloves)
- ¼ cup (60 ml/2 oz) olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- celtic/himalayan sea salt, to taste
Preheat oven to 180C/350F (160C/320F fan-forced)
Line a baking tray with parchment paper
Remove the stems from the capsicums (you will need to core them out, leaving a hole in the capsicum) and place on lined tray — make sure they are standing with the hole side down
Quarter your tomatoes and place on lined tray with your capsicums — drizzle your tomatoes with some olive oil
Slice off the top of your garlic bulb (it’s ok if the cloves separate) and wrap in some foil, before placing on your tray with the capsicums and tomatoes
Place the tray into the oven and bake for 30–40 minutes, until your capciums have blistered and slightly blackened. If they need longer, pull out your tomatoes and garlic and continue baking the capsicums until ready.
Place the capsicums in a brown paper bag and allow to cool
Peel the skin off the capsicum and scrap out all the seeds, and take the skins off the garlic too.
Tip peeled capsicum, garlic and remaining ingredients in a food processor.
Process until you have a smooth-ish sauce.
Store in a glass jar in the fridge.
Keeps in the fridge for up to a week. You can also freeze in portions, and add to hot meals during winter.
Use instead of tomato sauce, as a dip, spread in sandwiches, dollop on soups, pilafs, salads or any other meal you fancy.
Variations
- Just want a tomato sauce — leave out the capsicum and double your tomatoes.
- Make it herby — add a handful of basil, mint or coriander when processing
- Make it spicy — add some cayenne pepper to taste when processing
- Make it creamy — add some thick natural yoghurt or cashew milk/cream when processing
Lesh Karan 
Thank you for this..really informative.
My pleasure!
Thanks for this post! I have been gradually transitioning to better fats for cooking but it can be pretty hard to find good info. What are your thoughts on grape seed oil?? For some reason I remember it being mentioned as one that is OK to cook with etc, I tend to use olive oil for dressings and low heat cooking like you do and coconut oil or ghee in a curry but sometime just need a neutral oil to use for random cooking.
I do tend to relax my eating requirements on weekends/ when I eat out as I totally agree that you need to enjoy food and life without being super strict all the time. Its nice to maintain some sort of balance though so I try to do the right thing on week days 🙂 thanks for all the recipes and inspiration, this sauce looks amazing!
Hi Jasmine, I have never cooked with grape seed oil. I believe grape seed oil is high in polyunsaturated fat so it’s best not to cook with it. You’re better off using a good quality olive oil or ghee. Even though grape seed oil is said to have a high smoking point, that really is just about the temperature that causes the oil to smoke and burn — the oil can still turn rancid because of it’s chemical structure before it reaches smoking point. I hope this helps.
Lesh, I love this article, and the selection of topics you write about! They’re usually the topics for which I’ve been scratching my head for dome time and not able to find any (simple) clarification. You have the gift of presenting information simply and honestly. Very inspiring as I’ve only just recently enrolled in IIN as well.
Aw thanks Agnes for your beautiful kind words! I am so HAPPY to hear that you found this post useful — sometimes I just never know how people will respond to what I have to say, so thank you for your lovely feedback!
And CONGRATULATIONS for signing up to IIN! I hope you are enjoying it and that you get what you NEED from it — wherever it takes you xx
I discovered your website by chance a couple of weeks ago and I am now regularly checking for updates, as I find it very informative. With regard to cooking fats, I just stumbled by chance in a campaign against palm oil which I thougt it may be of interest for you and for other readers. It has nothing to do with palm oil being good or bad when used for cooking, but it’s rather about the sustainability of the palm oil industry, which appears having enormous negative effects on the planet. Surely, if something is bad for the planet is not good for me to eat it. More info here http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/
Yes, You are quite right Annalisa! Thanks for reminding me about this IMPORTANT fact, which totally slipped my mind. There are sustainable sources of organic palm oil — I have now updated the post. Thanks again.
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