(When I was 16 I decided to go on an extreme cleanse diet which consisted of nothing but vegetable juice, specifically beet juice. all day every day for 4 days. I have never felt the same about beets since) Anyway, I am always trying to come up with substitutes for things. One day I was using butternut squash for a sauce and I thought, "Hm. If I added some cherries to this it would probably look like tomato sauce. And cherries are tart yet slightly sweet, like tomatoes." I added salt, pepper, and italian herbs such as oregano and basil to it, and voila. tomato sauce, Italian style. Don't judge until you try it. Seriously. My kids say it is very close to the real thing. If you have a kid with a tomato allergy, make this and try it. They don't have to know what's in there. I used frozen organic cherries from Costco. I cooked them down on a stovetop until there was a liquidy syrup accompaniment. About 4 cups frozen. Add to about 4 cups of cooked butternut squash, no skin. Blend well in a high powered blender. Depending on how much cherry juice you have you might want to add a little water to get the sauce nice and smooth. We have a vitamix.
Add your salt, pepper, and spices to taste. You could add a sweetener but I chose to keep it sugar free. Now you could also just start with salt and pepper and use this as a base sauce. Add cumin and cilantro for a Mexican flavored sauce, and the above for a more Italian flare.
I recently used this on a homemade pizza with an almond flour crust, ground beef and sheep cheese. Everyone loved it.
Enjoy! :)
Post a Comment