This Easy Nomato Marinara Sauce (AIP) or no tomato sauce recipe is a veggie packed spaghetti sauce substitute to a traditional marinara sauce.
What is nomato sauce?
If you haven’t heard of nomato sauce, it’s basically a tomatoless sauce. This nomato sauce version is nightshade free.
What does nomato sauce taste like?
I can’t speak for other nomato sauces but this one taste remarkable like your typical marinara sauce. The combination of butternut squash, carrots, beets and a few other things look and taste pretty close to the real thing.
Can you freeze nomato sauce?
Yes! It freezes well. I usually double the batch and freeze the leftovers. I add it to different size glass jars. That way I have exactly enough to use with AIP Pizza or pasta.
Ingredients
This spaghetti sauce substitute has an intimidating amount of ingredients however, many can be bought prepackaged so make this recipe super easy.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Butternut Squash: For ease, buy prepackaged peeled and chopped squash. Pumpkin is a good substitute.
- Beets: Again, for ease, buy cooked, peeled, and chopped beets.
- Homemade Italian Seasonings: If you don’t make your own (here's a homemade recipe), feel free to get prepackaged Italian Seasonings. Just make sure that all the ingredients are AIP friendly.
- Salt
- Ground Pepper: This is optional for those in the elimination stage of the AIP diet.
- Chicken Broth: Homemade is best! I keep broth on hand stocked away in the freezer.
How do you make no mato sauce?
1. Add the olive oil to a stockpot over medium high heat. Next add your onion and garlic then cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the carrots, squash, beets, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper (if using), and broth to the pot and then cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until your carrots and squash are soft.
3. Once your veggies are soft, use an immersion blender or regular blender to combine them until your sauce reaches your desired consistency. At this point the sauce will be very hot so take care when blending so you don’t burn yourself. Serve immediately with your favorite pasta.
Tips for making the BEST Nomato Sauce.
- This recipe can very easily be doubled if you need a large quantity for freezing a leftovers.
- This recipe can be used as a nightshade free pizza sauce. Check out my AIP Pizza Crust.
- Serve with AIP pasta, sweet potato starch noodles or veggie noodles.
- If you're looking for a meat sauce, try my Nomato Bolognese.
- Use immediately with your favorite pasta or spiralized vegetable or freeze until you are ready to use.
- Take care when blending so you don’t burn yourself.
- This is the type of immersion blender used for this recipe.
If you like this AIP sauce recipe, try these recipes.
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Easy Nomato Marinara Sauce (AIP)
Equipment
- Immersion Blender
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Onion chopped
- 4 Garlic cloves crushed
- 4 Carrots about 2 cups, large, chopped into chunks
- 2 cups Butternut Squash peeled and cubed
- 4 small precooked Beets about 1 cup, peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon Homemade Italian Seasonings
- 1 teaspoon Salt plus additional for serving
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Pepper plus additional for serving AIP Reintroduction, optional
- 1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth Homemade is best!
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a stockpot over medium high heat. Next add your onion and garlic then cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots, squash, beets, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper (if using), and broth to the pot and then cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until your carrots and squash are soft.
- Once your veggies are soft, use an immersion blender or regular blender to combine them until your sauce reaches your desired consistency. At this point the sauce will be very hot so take care when blending so you don’t burn yourself. Serve immediately with your favorite pasta.
Notes
- This recipe can very easily be doubled if you need a large quantity for freezing a leftovers.
- This recipe can be used as a nightshade free pizza sauce. Check out my AIP Pizza Crust.
- Serve with AIP pasta, sweet potato starch noodles or veggie noodles.
- If you're looking for a meat sauce, try my Nomato Bolognese.
- Use immediately with your favorite pasta or spiralized vegetable or freeze until you are ready to use.
- Take care when blending so you don’t burn yourself.
- This is the type of immersion blender used for this recipe.
Helpful Info for All Recipes
- I always use extra virgin olive oil in all of my recipes unless stated otherwise.
- I always use Himalayan sea salt or Celtic sea salt, unless otherwise noted.
- The majority of my recipes are strict AIP or include notations for reintroductions. However while I make every effort to label non-AIP ingredients and recipes sometimes they slip past me. If you have questions, please ask in advance.
Did you make this recipe? I love hearing your thoughts on my recipes so please rate and comment below.
Tried this sauce yesterday as the base for a ratatouille - came out delicious, my parents and I were in agreement we would never have guessed it was tomato-free if we hadn't known. Perfect, thanks so much!
In your comments and recipe, you mention pumpkin. However, pumpkin is not listed as an ingredient. So....? Also, is it OK to use canned beets for this recipe?
That's a typo. It should have said squash. I've updated it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Yes, canned beets are ok for this recipe. You may not get the brilliant red color of fresh beets but the flavor should be the same.
I made this pretty much following the recipe and it is really good. The color and consistence is similar to real marinara and the taste is nice. I will make this again
Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I fool my husband with this sauce. He can't actually tell the difference between this and a tomato sauce!
Can the beets be eliminated? I have tried different nomato recipes and the beet flavor is just too strong for me.
Beets aren't my thing either. They taste like dirt to me. I get it. However, I use just enough to give it the red color not enough to overpower the recipe. If you don't care about your nomato sauce being yellow (cuz of the carrots) then feel free to leave them out.
how much in cups or weight is '4 small beets'? ...MY idea of small may not be YOUR idea of small (I don't like beets). Thanks 🙂
Probably about 1 cup. And I don't love beets either. I don't taste them in this recipe.
Hello! So my sauce tasted like beets SO much, I couldn’t get past that. I noticed on the back of the Trader Joe’s box it says it’s equivalent to 2 small beets. I think if I don’t buy those next time, I’ll cut the recommended amount of beets in half! My kiddo loved spaghetti with tomato sauce, but now that’s he’s allergic we can’t have it. I’m so determined to get this right!
I've found that some people are really sensitive to the taste of beets. If so, you should definitely pull back. It's mostly there for coloring, not flavor anyway.
How do you prepare raw beets to match this recipe if you don't have a nearby Trader Joes?
You could boil or roast them in the oven. If you're going to roast them, I'd roughly chop them and put them on a baking sheet with some olive oil. Roast them for 30-45 minutes at 450 until done.
Beets are easy to cook in an Instant Pot, small to medium beets set at manual for about 20 minutes with natural release. Don't peel beets first, just scrub. After cooked plunge in cold water, the skins should slip off
Great tip. Homemade cooked beets work best for this recipe. They give the best color!
Does this nomato sauce have a strong beet taste?
Nope. Not at all. I'm not really a beet lover so I won't recipes that have a strong beet flavor.
Would this taste ok without garlic and onions? I can't have either.
Honestly, I don't know. I've never tried them without onions or garlic. There are a variety of veggies so it may still taste good just a little bland. My suggestion would be to experiment. Consider adding a bit of grated ginger, a bay leaf or fennel as a substitute.