The Plant-Based Community Cookery School
The Plant-Based Community Cookery School
MIH founder Sarah Bentley created this tomato sauce for her little boy as a way of packing nourishment into him during a very selective eating phase. It's full of goodness and concealed veggies and lentils - but once it's all blended up - it just tastes like sweet, simple tomato sauce. Make batches of it for your freezer and use as a base for pizzas, pasta sauces or anything else! Photography by Heather Ford from Unsplash
Serves 4
1: Pre-heat the oven on 180C/356F.
2: Wash the red lentils. Add them to a pan, cover in filtered water and then swirl around with your hands. You’ll see the water will turn white. This is the lentils releasing starch. Do this for 1 minute then pour the water away and catching the lentils in a sieve.
3: Add the lentils back into the pan and cover again (about half inch above the lentils) with filtered water.
4: Put the lentils on a medium heat and cook for approx 15 minutes or until soft.
5: While the lentils are cooking slice your cherry tomatoes in half (or slice your large tomato into 4-6 segments), slice your peppers into four pieces and slice your courgette into rings. It doesn’t matter how they look as we’re going to blend them.
6: Using a brush (don’t free pour) coat your veggies lightly in olive oil and then place in your pre-heated oven for fifteen minutes or until they have roasted. When they’ve finished they will have shrunk in size and the pepper skin partially browned in a few places.
7: While your lentils are cooking and your veggies are roasting, you can add to a blender jug your tin of chopped tomatoes, carton of passata, apple cider vinegar, Marmite, nutritional yeast, bouillon and pitted dates.
8: By the time you’ve done that your lentils are probably now ready – you’ll know this as the water will have cooked away and the lentils will look soft and flurry. Test a small mouthful to see.
9: Tip the lentils into a sieve to drain the water away and then add them to your blender jug.
10: Once your veggies are roasted, use an oven glove to take the tray out of the oven and rest it on a pain stand or a wooden chopping board to save your kitchen surface. Unless you’re fancy and have a stone counter top! Lucky you.
11: Using a pie slice or a large metal spoon or serving tongs – whatever you have – add the roasted veggies to your blender. If you only have a small blender you might want to do this in two batches.
12: Put the lid on the blender and blend until smooth.
13: Taste! If you’re new to wholefood plant-based eating you may want to sweeten up a little more with another date. Once you’ve been eating this way for a while you won’t need any dates and the roasted veggies will add all the sweetness you need.
Tip: If you want to make this sauce go further or have more to stock up your freezer – just add another can of chopped tomatoes or/and a carton of passata. Experiment by adding in a small handful of spinach or some chopped celery. Make it your own!
