Spaghetti Sauce - homemade - lower sodium
| Prep Time: 30 min | Serves: 14 |
| Cooking Time: 60 min | Yield: 7 cups |
Made this sauce because the jarred and canned sauces have too much sodium. This is also far less expensive! Be sure to use tomato puree and ground meat that hasn't had any salt or flavorings added!
Ingredients
- 56 oz Tomato Puree, No Salt Added
- 6 oz Vidalia
- 4 Garlic Clove
- 1 3/5 oz Green-bell Pepper
- 4 2/5 oz White Mushrooms
- 1/2 tsp Sugar*
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt-fine
- 1/4 tsp Oregano, Dried
- 1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 4 oz Pork, Fresh, Ground, Raw
Directions
Heat skillet. Add oil. Saute onion, garlic, green pepper and mushroom over medium-high heat. When onions are clear, and ground pork. Brown pork thoroughly while breaking it up into very small bits. Add two 28 ounce cans of no-salt-added tomato puree and stir. Add oregano, Italian herb mix (Publix), sugar, black pepper and sea salt and stir thoroughly. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for at least an hour. If you have fresh herbs in your garden, chop finely and add them just before serving. They will add a lot of flavor and won't affect the nutrition profile enough to make a difference.
Store in clean glass jars. Should last several days in the refrigerator; longer if you use a proven canning method.
If you leave some head space you can freeze it, or freeze into cubes for portion control.
We don't really have to worry about long storage; it gets used up quickly!
You can make it even lower sodium by eliminating the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, but it will change the flavor.
This sauce is good meatless; if you omit the meat you can save most of the fat, but it will also be lower in protein. You can substitute extra-lean ground beef or turkey to reduce fat and calories, while keeping the protein, but they are far more costly. The pork was chosen in this case for the low price and good flavor. You are getting only about 1/4 ounce of meat per half cup of sauce serving.
Read some labels of jarred spaghetti sauce and you will see that most have a MUCH higher sodium content than this homemade sauce.