My Simple Enchilada Sauce Recipe
I love growing tomatoes in the garden to make my own pasta sauce but my favourite thing to make is enchilada sauce! Packaged enchilada sauce can have a lot of sodium, and making your own can help you control those levels. Making this sauce has brought me so much joy the past few years as it always tastes better from scratch! In fact, in the late summer, I love to make a few batches and freeze some to enjoy throughout the fall & winter.
The main ingredients can all be grown right in your backyard garden: onion, tomatoes, basil & garlic. These are all things that we grow ourselves, so it’s a really simple recipe to make with ingredients that I always have on hand! The spices you add in the recipe are probably sitting in your cupboard right now too! If you’re wanting to use up your cherry tomatoes, I’d save those for another recipe & keep this to medium-to-large tomatoes. This recipe will make 1 or 2 enchilada dishes, depending on the size of your main meal, but you can easily freeze any leftovers for next time you want to make enchiladas.
Make a Sheet Pan Tomato Sauce:
INGREDIENTS
7–8 medium whole tomatoes (fresh or frozen; if tomatoes are very large, cut in half)
1 medium onion, sliced in chunks
½ cup (24 g) fresh basil, packed
2 tsp (10 ml) olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp fresh or dried oregano
8 cloves garlic, cut in half
INSTRUCTIONS
Pre-heat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Add all the ingredients to an oven-safe baking dish and mix. Cover the baking dish and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until tomatoes are blistering. Remove from the oven and allow the sauce to cool slightly. Add more fresh basil if desired and blend with an immersion blender or add to a blender. Combine well.
The sauce is now ready to be used as a tomato sauce. You can add a little balsamic reduction and salt to taste to use on spaghetti. Or, to make Enchilada Sauce, continue with the recipe below.
… Now, let’s make it into an Enchilada Sauce!
INGREDIENTS
1 batch Simple Tomato Sauce
1 cup (240 ml) vegetable broth
2 tsp (6 g) cumin
1 tbsp (7 g) paprika
2 tsp (6 g) chili powder
2 tsp (12 g) salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Add the Simple Tomato Sauce to a pot over medium heat. Add the vegetable broth, cumin, paprika, chili powder, and salt and simmer for 5 minutes.
* Note: You can use frozen whole tomatoes for this recipe if baking during the fall/winter after tomato season.
Let me know in the comments below if you tried this recipe and what you thought of it! It’s definitely a go-to in our home, and I love that I can easily freeze the remaining sauce for the next time that I make enchiladas. My goal one day is to can my own sauce!
