If your garden starts producing more tomatoes and zucchini than you know what to do with, homemade marinara sauce is another way to use them that is creative and different.
This isn't a recipe that requires everything to be measured perfectly. In fact, one of the best things about this garden marinara sauce is that you can make it based on what you have available. Use what you are bringing in from your garden or what you find on sale at a local farm stand.
The result is a flavorful tomato sauce packed with vegetables that you can freeze and enjoy throughout the year.
A Simple Way to Sneak Extra Vegetables Into Meals
One of my favorite things about making homemade marinara is how many vegetables you can add without making the meal feel like you're eating a bowl of vegetables.
Tomatoes are the base, but you can add onions, peppers, zucchini, and fresh herbs. Allow it to cook for a few hours and it creates an incredible flavor. Once everything has cooked down and is blended together, the vegetables become part of the sauce.
This is especially helpful when you're cooking for a family with different preferences. Instead of making a separate vegetable side every night, you can build extra vegetables right into a sauce your family already enjoys.
I also like adding red lentils. I started with about ½ cup and ended up adding 1 cup of red lentils to my large batch. They practically disappear into the tomato sauce while adding protein and fiber, making the marinara more filling and nutritious.
If you want more ideas for sneaking vegetables into recipes, check out my taco meat and hidden veggie brownies.
Freezing Tomatoes
In the summer, it seems like suddenly I have a kitchen full of tomatoes. I wash my tomatoes, remove the cores, and then freeze them in gallon-size freezer bags. This allows me to use them later and not be rushed or worried about them spoiling. Once I have enough to make a large batch of marinara, I can simply add the frozen tomatoes straight to the pot.
This is a great way to preserve your harvest without having to make sauce every time a few tomatoes ripen.
You don't have to grow your own tomatoes to do this. If you find a great price on tomatoes at a farmers market or local farm stand, you can use the same method.
If you want more information on keeping tomatoes fresh, check out this video.
There's information on washing and storing 75 produce items in my book, the Zero Waste Produce. Guide. If you are tired of throwing away items before you get to eat them, this is for you! Learn how to keep produce fresh for 3-4 weeks. It is available in The Cross Legacy Shop and on Amazon.
Marinara Sauce Tips!
This is one of those recipes where you can save yourself a lot of prep time.
Since the entire sauce is going to be blended at the end, there's no reason to spend time chopping your vegetables into tiny, perfectly sized pieces.
Roughly chop your onion, pepper, and zucchini and add them to a large pot. They'll have plenty of time to soften while the sauce simmers.
If you're working with large zucchini that have developed bigger seeds, scoop the seeds out before adding them. You can also peel the zucchini if you want to make sure that it is really hidden in the sauce, but that is optional.
The immersion blender does the rest!
How to Freeze Homemade Marinara Sauce
Once your marinara has finished cooking and you've blended it until smooth, let it cool before transferring it to storage containers.
If you're using glass jars, choose wide-mouth jars. I have a full video about freezing items in glass jars here. Leave about 2 inches of space at the top to allow the sauce room to expand as it freezes. I also like to let the filled jars cool to refrigerator temperature before putting them in the freezer. Cooling the sauce gradually helps reduce the risk of thermal shock and cracked glass.
Freezer bags are another easy option. After the sauce has cooled completely, portion it into quart-size freezer bags and lay them flat in the freezer. Once they're frozen, the flat bags are easy to stack. You can even organize them in a bin or container so you can easily grab a bag whenever you need marinara.
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