Collection: Tomato Sauces, Purees and Jams

Winter comes, and suddenly we are looking for sauces of all sorts to make soup out of, add to lentil braises, vegetable stews, gratins, dipping sauces, and other dishes. Luckily I make several of these each Autumn so that they are frozen in zip lock bags, ready for the first Wintery dish that needs them.

I am not meaning the sort of sauce that you put on your bangers and mash or over your BBQ, as this is a vegetarian blog. Most of these sauces would be fine for that use too, but the prime purpose of these is to add flavour to other dishes, or form the base for soups, other sauces, and dipping sauces for snacks.

Enjoy these 7 or so different Tomato Sauce recipes. And don’t forget that you can pre-make these in Autumn when the tomatoes are at their best, and freeze them for those cold rainy days.

Similar articles include 30 Soups for Mid Autumn, A Collection of Kitchdi Recipes, and Delicious Recipes with Green Tomatoes.

Browse all of our Tomato Sauce Recipes, and all of our Collections. Or explore our Mid Autumn recipes.

Spicy Mashed Potato and Sweet Potato with Onions | Podimas

This is a lovely mash of potatoes and sweet potatoes, and it can be made with either just potatoes or just sweet potatoes. It is simple to make once they are cooked – the mash is mixed with chilli, onion and spices. Delicious. It is a version of Podimas – a peeled and mashed vegetable, tempered with spices, green chillies and onion. Podimas means mash in Tamil. It is a traditional type of Poriyal.

Similar recipes include Simple Potato Podimas, Potato Pallya, and Garlicky Potato Mash.

Browse all of our Mashed Potato recipes and all of our Potato dishes. All of our Indian recipes are here, and our Indian Essentials are here. Or explore our Early Autumn dishes.

A New Approach to Vegetarian Stocks – How to Make Really Flavoursome Vegetarian Stocks

My thinking about broths or stocks for soups has changed over the years. Once I regularly made vegetable stock from off-cuts and peelings, supplemented by chopped vegetables to get the right balance. I made loads of light Asian style broths and more layered all-in stocks for soups, risottos, and the like. There were miso based stocks, SE Asian coconut-curried stocks and Indian flavoured stocks. Keeping them in the freezer meant that they were always at hand.

Don’t get me wrong, I still use these regularly, but more often I use a different technique, and one that does not require additional work. I make the stocks in the dish I am cooking. More often than not this is soup but it can be any dish – risotto, braises, bean bakes, veggie casseroles, sauces, veggie stews, etc.

Buckwheat and Broccolini Salad

I happily eat this buckwheat salad as is for a light lunch or snack. You know I love my salad snacks. It is lovely just on its own. Or it is great served with, say, some fritters, herby new potatoes and roasted beetroot. Yum.

This is an excellent dish for the cooler days of Summer and Autumn. The recipe is based on one from Ottolenghi’s Simple. He uses beans in the salad. After the devastating bushfires in Australia, fresh beans are difficult to source. Broccolini makes a great alternative. We cook a lot of Ottolenghi dishes but always feel free to use what is in our pantry, on our kitchen benches, in our garden, or available locally. For the original recipes, check his books and his Guardian column.

Some say buckwheat is an acquired taste. But I think of it as a creamy quinoa, and adore the flavour and texture. You will too. It has a slightly earthy and nutty flavour.

Similar dishes include Butternut with Buckwheat Polenta, Broccolini and Sweet Tahini, and Buckwheat Salad.

Browse all of our Buckwheat recipes and all of our Broccolini dishes. Our Ottolenghi dishes from Simple are here. We have written about our experiences cooking through Plenty More. Or explore our Late Summer recipes.

Broccoli and White Bean Soup with Rosemary

I have been lying in bed this morning – a cold morning of Autumn where it is nice to be sipping coffee and reading under the warm blankets. I have been watching the sky as I read, wondering what kind of day it will be, and it has varied from bright blue and cloudless, to dark and stormy, and back to few clouds and a bright blue sky. Such are the joys of our Australian weather. We watch the sky in Summer to see what heat levels we need to endure during the day, in Autumn we watch the sky for much needed rain, in Winter it is about how cold and wet it will be, and in Spring we wait for the first warm to hot day to arrive.

So it is nearly Winter and the soup pot has emerged from the depths of the cupboard again. We made an awesome spicy tomato soup the other day, quite Indian in style, and today we turn towards Italy and the simple but awesome products that come out of kitchens. I have heard the food of Tuscany particularly is called Poor Man’s Food, that is, food that is made from locally grown produce without fanciness or pretension. Exactly my kind of food. I remain a country girl at heart despite living in various cities for the majority of my life. The influence of those first 15 – 20 years never leaves you.

I have roasted the broccoli in this dish, but you can just add it to the onions if you prefer to skip that step.

Similar dishes include Broccoli and Chickpeas, Greek White Bean Soup, and White Bean and Leek Soup.

Browse all of our Soups and all of our Broccoli dishes. Or explore our Late Autumn food.

Saffron Rasayana for the Weary

Are you weary? Stressed? In need of some relaxation? I have a rasayana for you – saffron in milk with honey and ghee. Amazingly, this drink relaxes and destresses. You feel your breath ease and deepen and worries vanish.

The art and science of rasayana is about lengthening the lifespan, and individual rasayana recipes can be considered as tonics or something that enhances well being. Rasayanas not only include food but behaviours and practices.

This is a very precious recipe.

Similar recipes include Dates and Saffron in Ghee, Dates Milk to fight Fatigue, and Saffron, Date and Almond Rice.

Browse our Rasayanas and Ayurvedic recipes. Or explore our Late Autumn recipes.

Freeze Ginger or Make Ginger Paste and Ginger-Garlic Paste for the Winter, Self Isolation or Lockdown

The best time to freeze ginger or make Ginger or Ginger-Garlic Paste is Late Summer or Early Autumn. Ginger and garlic are plentiful then, good quality, local and cheap. You can often get young ginger at this time – it is gentler in flavour and delicious.

We normally keep this post over on our Sister Site, Heat in the Kitchen, but today we are reproducing it here, just in case it is helpful for people mostly limited to home.

You can also see how to make Coriander Paste. And Chilli Paste. Also how to Freeze Tomatoes for Winter. Explore other ways to preserve goodies for Winter.

Chickpea and Parsley Soup with Turmeric

Here is another of my loved rustic soups. It is a health-boost in a bowl, this soup. I usually don’t make it until later in the Wintery cough-and-cold season, but here we sit, at the beginning of the coronavirus scare. It is early March as I write, so I am putting attention to boosting the immunity of family and friends – and myself of course.

This is a very easy soup to make, and the chickpeas can be cooked the day before if you wish. Tinned chickpeas can be used – just skip the instructions for cooking them.

Similar recipes include Freezing Ginger and Making Ginger Paste, Chickpea and Pasta Soup, Turkish Spinach Soup with Chickpeas, and Parsley Braised with Tomatoes.

Browse all of our Soup recipes and all of our Chickpea Soups. Or explore our Early Autumn dishes.

How to Keep Tomatoes for the Winter, Self Isolation or Lockdown – Purees, Pastes, Freezing, Drying

In Autumn, tomatoes are cheap and great quality, often more flavoursome than Summer tomatoes. Locally I can buy large bags of them very cheaply. It is a perfect time to freeze tomatoes for use during winter. And in times of trouble, such as these crazy days of 2020, it is useful to have tomatoes that you can use without having to leave the house to shop.

We normally keep this post over on our Sister Site, Heat in the Kitchen, but today we are reproducing it here, just in case it is helpful for people mostly limited to home.

Other Tips you might like are Freezing Ginger and Making Ginger Paste, How to Freeze Garlic, and Making Coriander Paste.

Roasted Eggplant with Special Miso Sauce

The thing about Special Miso Sauce is that it is rich and dark and almost overwhelming in its deep flavours, so it is perfect for dishes in which you might use, if you weren’t vegetarian, things like fish sauce or anchovies. Not that it tastes the same but it does have that same affinity for certain ingredients.

And we all know just how well miso pairs with eggplant anyway – it is a classic combination in the miso-loving parts of the world. So in this dish we bring together eggplants and the Special Miso Sauce for wonderful results and a very simple dish.

Similar recipes include Algerian Eggplant Salad, Roasted Eggplant with Crushed Chickpeas, and Eggplants in Tamarind Leaf Paste.

Check out our collection of Miso recipes here.

Browse all of our Eggplant dishes and our Miso recipes. Or explore our Late Autumn dishes.