If there's one recipe everyone needs to have in their arsenal, it's a good tomato sauce recipe. Really! A good tomato sauce can be used as a base (ok..or topping) for pasta, bread (bruschetta or pizza), beef, chicken, vegetables or even fish. It's one of those "go to" items that if you have the ingredients in your pantry (and for this recipe you probably do) you can definitely have a delicious dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less. Last year, I posted my homemade marinara sauce recipe (and it's been pretty popular) that I keep bags of in my freezer. It's my "holy crap I forgot I need to make something for dinner" main ingredient. That tomato sauce recipe is easy, but this caramelized tomato sauce recipe is even easier. There's really not much mystery around how to make tomato sauce. You start with fresh or canned tomatoes and add ingredients from there. Want it to have a rich flavor? Add tomato paste. Like garlic, and all those other Italian seasonings? Add 'em. Red wine gives the sauce more depth and Worcestershire sauce gives it a bit of that umami thing. Any meat or veggies that get added into the sauce are just extras. This caramelized tomato sauce recipe only uses 3 ingredients. Seriously!  Three, count 'em 1...2...3. Can you add other stuff to it? Sure. You won't offend me (it takes a lot for that to happen). But I love how simple this tomato sauce is. You can really taste the tomato, so make sure you use a really good brand. I use this stuff on all of those dishes I listed in the first part of this post. I especially like using it on pizza's. There's been quite a bit written about caramelizing tomato paste before you use it in recipes. Caramelizing the paste makes the tomato flavor even richer. I start this tomato sauce recipe with caramelized tomato paste, but I don't stop there. If caramelizing one ingredient is good...doing it to the other 2 ingredients should make it even better...right? I've caught Craig grabbing the container of this sauce out of the fridge and dunking chunks of bread in it and eating it cold. I prefer it hot...but what do I know? So what's the first thing you're going to make with this caramelized tomato sauce?

An Amazing Caramelized Tomato Sauce Recipe in 15 Minutes

 

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Prep time

7 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

22 mins

 

This caramelized tomato sauce recipe will help you get a delicious dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less.

Author: Pamela Braun

Recipe type: Sauce

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 28 Ounce Can Crushed Tomatoes (strained through a sieve)

Instructions

1. Add the tomato paste to pan and heat over medium high heat.
2. Break up the paste, as it cooks, and watch it turn a deep, rich color.
3. Once it has deepened in color and isn't shiny anymore add the vinegar to deglaze the pan.
4. Add the drained tomatoes to the pan and continue to cook until there is no more extra liquid in the pan.
5. Continue to cook, and stir, until the tomatoes have deepened in color.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Now you can use it your favorite recipe or keep it in a covered container, in the refrigerator, for up to a week.

Notes

You're straining the liquid from the crushed tomatoes so that they cook faster. If you want a chunkier sauce, use 1 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes and 1 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes. Drain them both and proceed as directed. You can add roasted garlic, salt, pepper and pretty much any other seasoning you like to this sauce recipe.

3.2.1307

My Man's Belly

Banish those boring leftover chicken recipes! Who needs 'em? Yeah, leftovers are a fact of life and the guilt you feel when you let them go bad in the refrigerator is real too. This tropical Hawaiian salad is a lifesaver on so many levels. 1 - It uses up lots of leftover chicken. 2 - It's healthy, and relatively (I'll explain later) low in calories. 3 - It tastes fantastic! No one is going to believe you when you tell them you made this tropical treat out of leftovers. I've made lots of variations on this salad over the years. But I have to admit that the day I made this particular salad was a very sad day indeed (in my kitchen). I had plenty of food available to make some dinner, but it was all in the form of some random chicken bits, part of an onion, an almost empty bag of coconut (not enough to do anything with but too much to toss out - and too expensive to just throw away), a head of cabbage that I wasn't sure how long I had had it in the fridge and a pineapple on the verge of ending it all by leaping off my counter and landing on my floor. So I suppose it was kismet that I had to make this Hawaiian salad. These poor morsels of food needed something to make them feel better about their now sad existence in my refrigerator. Who says I don't have empathy. This Hawaiian salad is another one of those healthy lunch ideas. Because it uses 'sturdy' ingredients, you can make this up in advance and not worry about the dressing making everything a limp and oily mess. You may see some similarities between this Hawaiian salad and this Asian chicken salad recipe I posted a couple of years ago. That's not a figment of your imagination...it really is similar. I love this recipe because it gets extra crunch from toasted macadamia nuts (instead of those crushed Ramen noodles). That's what I meant when I mentioned that this salad wasn't exactly low cal. Macadamia nuts taste great and contain a lot of good for you stuff in them, but be careful with how many of them that you use. I call them little butter balls. One ounce of these crunchy little golden nuggets is 201 calories of which 178 of them are from fat. While yes, it's the good kind of fat...it's still fat, so go easy on them. I'm pretty sure with all of the pineapple, coconut and macadamia nuts in this Hawaiian salad, you're going to feel like strapping on a coconut bra and grass skirt while you're eating it. And...since it's pretty low cal, you'll be able to do that with confidence. Well, except for the fact that you could probably blind someone with those pale legs of yours. Oh, and may I recommend you give them a shave before donning that skirt?

5.0 from 1 reviews

Leftover Chicken Recipes - Tropical Hawaiian Salad

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

This tropical Hawaiian salad is the perfect cure for the leftover chicken recipes blues.

Author: Pamela Braun

Recipe type: Lunch

Cuisine: American

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• For Salad Dressing
• ⅓ Cup Canola Oil
• 1 Teaspoon Toasted Sesame Oil
• ¼ Cup + 2 Tablespoons Unseasoned Rice Wine Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Ginger (grated)
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1½ Teaspoon Salt
• ½ Teaspoon Szechuan Peppercorns* (crushed)
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• For Salad
• 1 Head Cabbage (shredded)
• 1 Medium Red Onion (thinly sliced)
• 1 Pineapple (chopped into small pieces)
• 2 Cups Cooked Chicken (shredded or chopped)
• ¾ Cup Unsweetened Coconut Chips (toasted)
• ¾ Cup Macadamia Nuts (toasted)

Instructions

1. For Salad Dressing
2. Add all ingredients to a small bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Taste and add additional salt, sugar or pepper as desired.
4. Set aside.
5. For Salad
6. Add the cabbage, red onion and pineapple to a large bowl and toss to combine.
7. Top salad with the chicken.
8. To toast the coconut, heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the coconut to the pan.
9. Gently toss for 4-5 minutes until edges begin to slightly brown and you can smell the coconut.
10. Pour coconut into a small bowl.
11. Use the same skillet and heat over medium high heat and add the macadamia nuts to the pan.
12. Toss for 4-5 minutes until they begin to brown in spots.
13. Remove from pan and pour into a small container.
14. Once cool, roughly chop or crush nuts.
15. Re-whisk the dressing and pour over salad and toss.
16. Top salad with toasted coconut.
17. Sprinkle the top with the chopped/crushed nuts.
18. Serve

Notes

*The Szechuan peppercorns are optional, but add a nice touch of spicy heat to the salad.

3.2.1307

My Man's Belly