Joe J. - Middle Eastern Spicy Tomato Sauce for Grains & Legumes

Whenever I make this sauce, I can’t get enough of it! It’s salt/oil/sugar-free (SOS-free), and so flavorful with the tomatoes, vegetables, spices, and vinegar, I don’t even miss the salt.

It’s great over brown rice, lentils, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), or just about any other grains and beans; even over mashed potatoes for something different.

Pictured above: I’ll often make a version of Egyptian Koshari (unauthentically, I’ll admit, but delicious), which is layers of brown rice, brown lentils, chickpeas, any smaller whole-grain pasta (optional) such as elbows, optional steamed greens, lots of the sauce, and fresh chopped or cooked/carmelized chopped onion.

Ingredients:

1 medium to large yellow onion, chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons no salt Baharat spice blend, or no salt Lebanese 7-Spice blend, no salt Ethiopian Berbere spice blend, or any other spicy curry-type blend (see comments)

1/4 cup vinegar (I prefer just plain white vinegar)

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional; taste the sauce first before adding)

2 14.5 cans tomato sauce, no salt added

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan over medium to medium heat, sauté onion with some water until tender and lightly browned, adding water two or three times when the pan is dry and the onions begin to brown. Add the garlic and stir for one minute, adding just a bit more water if necessary. Add the spice blend, and stir constantly for another 30 seconds to one minute, until well-blended with the onions and garlic and very fragrant. Add the vinegar and tomato sauce, stirring constantly to prevent the tomato sauce from sticking and burning until gently simmering. Remove from heat.

Comments:

No salt spice blends are available in abundance on Amazon. I almost always use a no salt Baharat spice blend, but any spicy curry-type blend works well, including, as mentioned, Lebanese 7-Spice or Ethiopian Berbere, and even Indian curry powder and/or garam masala.

Even when I wasn’t eating salt/oil/sugar-free (SOS-free), I never added salt to my meal when I had this sauce.