Loaded Vegetable Marinara Sauce

What to do with those tomatoes? Luckily there are tons of options! Salsa, tomato soup, just bottled tomatoes, and today we will tell you how to make your own delicious marinara sauce. This recipe is great because you can adjust it to what veggies you have ripe from your garden, or even to the veggies you like in marinara sauce. It takes quite a bit of tomatoes but not so much that you wont have enough to get this recipe made.

I was taught this recipe by my wonderful sister in law. Thanks, sis!

15 cups of prepared peeled and seeded fresh ripe tomatoes

3 yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped

3 large green peppers, roughly chopped

1 pound of mushrooms with steams

2 cups of shredded Zucchini or squash of your choice

4 stalks of Celery, roughly chopped

2 cups of shredded Carrots

5-6 cloves of garlic (about 2 Tablespoons)

2 teaspoons of dried oregano

2 teaspoons of dried Basil

2 teaspoons of dried Marjoram

2 Beef bullion cubes

1/2 cup of vinegar (white or red wine)

salt and pepper to taste

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil. Saute chopped Green Pepper, Onion, Celery and 1 tsp of salt until transparent. Add Garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Mix in Tomatoes, Squash, Carrots, Mushrooms, Vinegar, Beef Bullion and Salt and Pepper. (I start with 1 Tablespoon of Salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.)

Cook for 4-6 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally. (I usually put in in the crock pot at this point and cook for 8 hours on low.) When the sauce has cooked, taste test it to see if you want more seasoning or salt and pepper. Once the sauce is to your liking, puree it until smooth, then cook it for 1 more hour. If you like it more chunky, then you could puree only part of it leaving some chunks. The longer it cooks down, the thicker it will get and the more store like consistency it will have.

Then follow bottling, or freezing instructions. This usually will yield about 3- 3 1/2 quarts.

Happy Gardening!