Although I don’t use tomato sauce too much, I had to share this recipe. I recently made a trio of meatballs, including bacon with mozzerella, chorizo with cheddar, and italian sausage with pepperjack. The problem with a ketogenic diet is that we must be careful with those sugary vegetables (and pseudo-vegetables like tomatoes).
I found a great tomato sauce that many of you will love. It’s called Flora Tomato Sauce, and it doesn’t have many carbs per cup! I decided to use this to create a more flavorsome, more whole, and more delicious version of a sauce. It’s not “homemade” but it’s almost homemade, and your guests won’t know the difference 😉
Using fresh thyme and a decent quality red wine is key here. You don’t want to go with the absolute minimum quality cooking wine, as it doesn’t impart as much flavor into the sauce. Spend the $10 on a reasonable bottle, and use that for cooking only.
If you do decide to go with dried thyme, you won’t get as much flavor as you could – but make sure you reduce the amount used to 1 tsp. Dried thyme is much more pungent a flavor than fresh.
This goes great over any ground beef style dish you can think of – absolutely fantastic. It is a little bit carb heavy, so just be careful with the amount you use. I made 4 total servings out of 2 ¼ Cups of sauce – which is more than enough for most people. You can definitely make 6 servings out of this if you’re serving over meatballs, but I wanted to cover all bases here.
As always, I love hearing your progress, feedback, and twists!
Yields 2 ¼ Cups of Sauce
The Preparation
- 1 large green bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 cups low-carb tomato sauce, such as Rao's
- 1/4 cup dry red wine
The Execution
1. Chop your green pepper into relatively small pieces. You don’t want them too small, you want them big enough to create a chunky sauce.
2. In a pan, add your butter and green pepper.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Saute the green pepper in the butter for about 4-5 minutes.
5. While the green pepper is cooking, finely chop some thyme. If you are using dried thyme, you can use 1 tsp.
6. Continue cooking the green peppers until they are a less hard consistency. You don’t want to cook them too long, just enough for the skin to get tender but the inside to stay crisp.
7. Add your tomato sauce to the green pepper and stir well. Let this cook for about 4-5 minutes.
8. Add your red wine to the sauce and mix it well.
9. Finally, add your thyme to the sauce and stir everything well. Let it cook and reducefor 5-10 minutes on a medium-low heat, then serve!
This makes a total of 4 servings of Homemade Tomato Sauce. Each serving comes out to be 93 calories, 6g fats, 5.4g net carbs, and 1.6g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 large green bell pepper | 26 | 0.2 | 6.1 | 2.2 | 3.9 | 1.1 |
| 2 tablespoon butter | 203 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon fresh thyme | 2 | 0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 1 1/2 cup low-carb tomato sauce | 88 | 0.7 | 21.3 | 5.5 | 15.8 | 4.8 |
| 1/4 cup dry red wine | 50 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 |
| Totals | 370 | 24 | 29.5 | 8.1 | 21.5 | 6.3 |
| Per Serving (/4) | 93 | 6 | 7.4 | 2 | 5.4 | 1.6 |
Homemade Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 large green bell pepper
- 2 tablespoon butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1 ½ cup low-carb tomato sauce such as Rao's
- ¼ cup dry red wine
Instructions
- Chop the green pepper into relatively small pieces.
- Add the chopped green pepper to a pan with the butter. Season to taste.
- Sauté the green pepper for about 4–5 minutes or until slightly softened.
- While the green pepper is cooking, finely chop the thyme. If using dried thyme, use one-third of the amount.
- Add the tomato sauce to the green peppers and stir well. Let cook for about 4–5 minutes.
- Add the red wine to the sauce and mix well. Finally, add the thyme to the sauce and stir everything together well. Let cook and reduce for 5–10 minutes over medium-low heat.
- Serve and enjoy!
