Easy Tomato and Onion Gravy

Q. Why is a tomato round and red?
A. Because if it was long, skinny, and green, it would be a bean.

My grandmother used to cook a batch of this sauce every week, and use it for a variety of purposes. I learned to make this recipe by avidly watching her and, bit by bit, being allowed to help as I became old enough to navigate a knife and a hot stove.

You can use this recipe as a simple gravy for cooked meats, as a sauce over vegetables, or even with crusty bread or a quick bowl of pasta. It’s a recipe that can be easily varied to suit your taste buds, or the meal at hand. It’s even good on pizza bases or as a foundation for spaghetti bolognese.

One thing chronic illness has taught me is that food can be a medicine, and I have come to appreciate that this particular recipe is jam-packed full of goodness.

The onions and garlic are a good source of sulfur. Sulfur has anti-cancer, anti-microbial and detoxification properties, and supports blood vessel health, gut and heart health, immune cell support and liver health. The parsley is full of vitamins K, A, C, B group vitamins and anti-oxidants.

Cooked tomatoes and tomato paste are packed with lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant which has been shown to have a preventative effect against breast, skin, prostate, lung and liver cancer.

Chicken stock or bone broth calms digestion, heals the gut lining, and is a good source of protein, amino acids and anti-inflammatory compounds.

What I love most about this recipe though, is that it tastes so yummy, it is simple to prepare, and it makes getting those extra servings of vegetables into your diet that much easier. And it always reminds me of Marga, my maternal grandmother, whose legacy is, in part, her wonderful recipes.

Truth be told, when I add Worchestershire Sauce to this recipe it also reminds me of my grandfather, Ceddie.

As kids we called this sauce Ceddie Sauce because my grandfather ate it on everything. He even had us convinced that it was a picture of him on the bottle! (It’s not, of course, but I still pretend that it is!)

The Worchestershire sauce gives a nice tang for barbeque meats or sausages.

If you want to eat this sauce with seafood or chicken a dash of white wine is nice. Use red wine for red meats.

Ingredients:

1 large onion – diced, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 3 cups of diced fresh tomatoes or 1 can of tinned tomatoes, 1 to 2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock, 1 small diced red capsicum (bell pepper,) 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs – I used some green onion and parsley, 1 tablespoon of ghee, butter, or olive oil, salt and pepper.

*Optional – 1 tablespoon of Worchestershire Sauce, chilli or a splash of wine, a pinch of sugar. If your tomatoes are store bought or canned, and the capsicum is not ripe enough you may want just a pinch of sugar to counter the acidity in the sauce. If the capsicum IS ripe and sweet, you won’t need it.

Method:

Place the onion in a large pot or frypan with the fat. Cook over gentle heat until the onion starts to soften. Then tip in the capsicum and cook for two to three minutes, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t stick.

Add the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock. Increase the heat and bring to a simmer. Confession: I have a ridiculous amount of tomato plants in my garden this season. Ridiculous. So many varieties. But what can top a home-grown tomato? Expect more tomato based recipes soon…

Now add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and seasonings.

Stir well, reduce heat and simmer gently for thirty minutes. The sauce will thicken, so do check and stir occasionally. Enjoy!

That’s last night’s dinner below. A grilled organic T-bone with a side salad of mixed greens, olives, fermented vegetables, radish, walnuts, feta cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.