All purpose sauce-soup

[cmmcguire66 0]

I make this killer Tomato sauce-Soup that Jamie Oliver made for the British public school system to get kids to eat their veggies, and he demonstrated it on The Today Show. This makes a ton of sauce, but you do it once a month and freeze it, and it is a great go-to base for all sorts of things. Plus, you are getting tons of veggies in one place. If you poach a piece of meat in it, you are getting your protien and other Vitamins at the same time.

There are not set quantities in this recipe, because it really is to taste, but I will do my best:

1 lg. onion

2 ribs celery ( I peel it with a veg. peeler to remove stringiness)

Lots of whole garlic

2 large zucchinis

2 large yellow squash

1/2 bag baby carrots

2 each red & green peppers

Italian seasonings, salt, pepper

Olive Oil

1 large can (from a warehouse store) crushed tomatoes

Roughly chop all the vegetables and saute them in olive oil until they start to get a little soft. Season with the spices. Add the whole can of crushed tomatoes. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, and put a lid on the pot. Set your oven timer for 2.5 hours, and go do something else. When it is done, turn it off without lifting the lid, and let it cool for a couple of hours. When it is cool, use a hand blender (also called a stick blender) and blend, blend, blend! Make it as smooth as possible.

After it is blended, I put single servings in sandwich size zipper bags for myself, and larger quantities in gallon bags for the family and freeze them. You can add the following for more recipes:

• Add chicken or veggie stock for thin tomato soup
  
• Add fat-free 1/2 & 1/2 for creamy tomato soup
  
• Add part skim ricotta cheese for the mushie stage
  
• Poach an egg in it
  
• Poach a chicken thigh or breast in it
  
• Put browned ground meat (I use turkey) in the bottom of a custard dish, a layer of ricotta cheese, add sauce and parmesan cheese, broil for 2 minutes, and you have noodle-less lasgna
  

The last time I made this, I roasted the veggies first in the oven on a cookie sheet with olive oil and parmesan cheese on them, then added them to the crushed tomatoes and simmered for the 2.5 hours, and it was even better!

Edited July 24, 2008 by cmmcguire66
typo

[ShalomToAll 0]

Thanks for sharing, that looks great!