Roasted Tomato & Portabello Spaghetti Sauce

It's week #14 of my 2018 challenge to try one new whole-food plant-based (WFPB) recipe each week. The inspiration for this recipe comes from The Veg Life website. You can find the recipe, and many other recipes, at theveglife.com.    

What I like about this recipe (besides the fact that it's healthy):

• It's made from roasted tomatoes, which give the sauce a great flavor.
• No need to remove the skins from the tomatoes!
• The sauce freezes nicely for quick, healthy meals down the road.  
• Red pepper flakes give it a nice kick. (This can be omitted if you do not like spicy food.)

What I ended up using/doing:

Roast:

• 4 lbs. Roma tomatos, quartered
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic 
• 2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil (optional). If you don't use oil, you could add some of the spaghetti sauce (listed below) to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan. The tomatoes will release some water as they roast, which helps. 

Additional ingredients:

• 1 small package of fresh basil
• 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
• 1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2-3 Tbsp cold water (used to thicken the sauce)
• Two 8 oz. packages of baby portobello mushrooms, sliced 

1. I combined the first 7 ingredients in a 10x15 glass baking pan and roasted the mixture at 450 degrees for about one hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so. (Your house will smell so good as this cooks!)
2. Once removed from the oven and cooled a bit, run the roasted tomato mixture and the fresh basil through the food processor. (I kept mine a coarse/chunky texture.)
3. Add this mixture to the remaining ingredients (canned tomato sauce, cornstarch, and portobello mushrooms) in a large pot. Bring to a boil on the stove. 
4. As the sauce comes to a boil, cook some whole grain pasta in water.  (I used an "ancient grain" spaghetti variety, which was quite good.)
5. Pour the sauce over the pasta and enjoy!

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This post was originally published on April 4, 2018.