We’ve got a savoury recipe from our Nutritional Therapist Steph... sweet and delicious Tomato and Pepper pasta sauce (or soup!)
Slow-roasting vegetables really brings out their sweet flavour, as well as preserving some of the nutrition that can be lost through heating foods at high temperatures.
When you cook tomatoes, the vitamin C content diminishes substantially. However, the amount of antioxidant Lycopene can increase by up to 154%! Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that decreases cancer and heart-disease risk.
You’ll need:
4 peppers
3 large beef tomatoes, or any large tomatoes
1 large onion
4 whole garlic cloves (peeled)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp dried oregano
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
1 tin of plum tomatoes
To serve: Courgetti and/or pasta. I really like the texture of 1:1 ratio of buckwheat spaghetti and courgetti. Just add the courgette strips into the pasta water for the last couple of minutes of cooking time. (You can buy a julienne vegetable peeler on Amazon).
Some cooked prawns would be lovely on top, for added protein.
Directions:
Roughly chop the peppers, tomatoes and onion into 1 inch pieces and add to a baking tray with the whole garlic cloves and the herbs, salt and pepper. Drizzle over olive oil (about 2 tbsp), and roast in a preheated oven at 160c degrees for 1.5-2 hours, or until the vegetables are soft.
Transfer to a blender and whizz up with 1 tin of plum tomatoes.
Heat gently and serve with pasta and/or courgetti.
OR serve as a soup, you’ll just need to add a little water to thin it out. Add some crunchy sourdough croutons on top and a poached egg for protein to keep you fuller for longer.