This tomato free pizza sauce is the perfect topper for your pizza night! Nightshade free, vegan, no sugar, gluten free, & nut free, this tomato free pizza sauce is suitable for the whole family.
Free From: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, mollusks, celery, corn, sesame, mustard, lupin, sulfites, and more
When you ask me what my top three favorite foods in the whole world are, I will always reply: Pizza, pizza, and tacos. No joke, pizza gets two spots in my top three favorite foods. When I traveled to Italy, I was only too happy to consume pizza for lunch AND dinner. So, my love affair with pizza is a huge deal.
But when a family member had to give up nightshades to improve her health, I was thrown for a loop. Sure, we can do a white pizza with ricotta cheese and mushrooms, but there is something so wonderful about a red sauce on pizza.
Not to worry, I love solving food allergy problems and making foods that EVERYONE can enjoy.
What Are Nightshades
There are over 2,000 types of plants in the nightshade family and the majority of them are poisonous. However, foods like potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants also fall into the night shade family.
Nightshades are a type of plant that produce certain compounds, specifically saponins and glycoalkaloids, that can make them difficult for people. These cause inflammation and can simulate an autoimmune response in the body, thinking that it is under attack when it isn’t.
Therefore, many people who are working on controlling part of their autoimmune illnesses though diet have found that eliminating nightshades results in huge improvements in their health.
To read more about nightshades, make sure you check out my Nightshades 101 article!
Ingredients
To make this tomato free pizza sauce, you only need a few ingredients that you can easily pick up from your local grocery store! No weird or fancy ingredients here. This is the quick run down of what you'll need:
- Carrots
- Beets
- Onion
- Red pepper (if can use)
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Spices
- Veggie Stock or Water
Instructions
To make this sauce, start by prepping all your veggies. Roughly chop the beets, carrots, red pepper (if using), onion, and garlic. Toss it into a large cooking pot. Add the spices, lemon juice, and olive oil.
Cover the veggies with your veggie stock or water. Both taste amazing (I've tried both and might even slightly prefer just plain water).
Cook the veggies over a medium-low flame for about 45 minutes or until all the veggies are soft and easily pierced with a fork.
Carefully transfer the veggies and stock into a blender or food processor. Blend until the sauce is the consistency you like.
Add to pizza crust or freeze till you're ready to use!
How to Store
This sauce can be used right away or kept in a container in the fridge and used within 3 days after making.
To store this sauce longer, I like to freeze them into ice cube trays. The shape allows for quick thaws that I can use anytime the pizza mood strikes me (which is about once a week!).
Tips
This makes a ton of sauce! You can save it in the fridge for up to a week, but I would recommending freezing it so you can have some sauce whenever you want. Something we do in my house is freeze them in ice cube trays! Then on pizza night, we pop out 4 sauce cubes per pizza, thaw them, and enjoy fresh sauce anytime.
If you are avoiding only tomatoes, I would recommend adding a roasted red pepper to this mix for an extra kick and more in keeping with Italian flavor themes. You could also add a ½ to full teaspoon of roasted red pepper flakes, depending on how spicy you like it.
It goes great on any kind of pizza you can imagine. Need a good pizza dough? Check out my Gluten Free Detroit Style pizza (nut + dairy free) or my Gluten Free Pizza Crust (top 9 free).
Recipe
Equipment
- mixing cups
- mixing spoons
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- knife
- cutting board
- pot
- blender / food processor
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 lbs carrots peeled
- 1 beet medium sized, peeled and chopped
- 1 red pepper optional
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- 3 cups veggie stock or water
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning blend
- 1 lemon juiced
Instructions
- Prep all your veggies. Place all ingredients in the pot and stir to combine. You want to make sure your veggies are just covered with water, so add more depending on size of your pot.
- Bring veggies to a boil over high flame. Once there, reduce flame to medium-low and let simmer for up to 45 minutes. You will know it is done when the beets are easily pierced with a fork and most of the liquid has evaporated. About 1 cup of liquid should remain.
- Carefully transfer your veggies to a blender. Add your lemon juice. To make sure your blender doesn't explode from the heat and pressure, don't place your blender lid on all the way and cover it with a towel so you don't get burned. Blend it till you reach your desired consistency. Taste for seasoning.
- Use right away on your pizza as you would any other red sauce. This keeps in the fridge for up to a week and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how this turned out for you! Pop over to the Facebook Page to share your success or tag me over on Instagram with the hashtag #livingbeyondallergies I love to see your creations!
Erika says
I'm not allergic to all nightshades but only tomato, and that time the only recipe I found for a sauce was about 20 ingredients. With arthritis I have trouble dicing so i almost gave up till I come across a Europian sauce called Ajvar which does have capsicum and eggplant in it but I am ok with them.The taste is not bad but then I found some beetroot powder and added some and it made all the difference,As for onion and garlic having IBS on the low fodmap diet I am on I can have oil infused garlic and onion that I can tolerate. Also Free Fod got replacer powders for both that can add extra taste
Melissa says
If you have reactions to nightshades please do not use pre-grated (in a bag) cheese. Most pre-grated cheses use potato starch as an anti-clumper. Grated cheese you grate from a block of cheese is fine. Always check the ingredients on any cheese. I have had a severe reaction from just a very small (like a quarter of a pinkie fingernail sized) piece of Kraft American cheese even. Sure enough the label listed "food starch" which in this case had to have contained potato starch.
Laura says
This is excellent to include! Yes, most if not all, pre-grated cheese uses potato starch as the anti-clumper. Thank you for sharing this and I will be adding it to this article. I'm sorry to hear that you had such a severe reaction and hope that you are better now.
Anna says
I suffer from bad acid reflux and am looking for a low acid, non tomato based pizza sauce. Onions and garlic are triggers as well. Do you have recommendations as how to edit the sauce to avoid these ingredients? I saw someone suggest apples? Thanks!
Laura says
An apple added would totally bring some sweetness and body to the sauce. I would suggest also adding a parsnip (peeled, diced, along with the carrot) to add a bit of that earthiness that the onions and garlic bring.
You could also add some shallots or chives if those don’t trigger a reaction. I know some people can eat them and some cannot.
A half of a chopped fennel bulb would also be great in this!
Finally, I would add a drizzle of truffle oil on top of the pizza before baking to really help add some Italian flavor to the dish. That along with basil and oregano really will sell the flavors of pizza without the onion and garlic!
Hope one of these ideas work for you!
Kema Alyo says
Since I can’t have garlic-should I add extra onions or just eliminate it without adding anything else in? Thanks!
Laura says
You could add more onion if you like and you are able to safely enjoy more! Since you are removing the garlic, a drizzle of truffle olive oil on the pizza crust and some extra basil added after cooking on top of the cheese are nice easy ways to get more Italian flavor without the garlic. However, they are totally not necessary, just a suggestion. The sauce is great without garlic and not adding in anything else. Enjoy!
Robin says
This is a great recipe. Since I realized tomatoes are a migraine trigger for me, I have been mourning pizza. In my second batch, I added half an apple to add some sweetness and loved the result.
Laura says
Thank you so much for this comment! I love your idea to add an apple for sweetness, I'm totally trying that next time!! Cheers to happy pizza night!
DJ Winters says
I freeze sauce by putting plastic wrap on a plate or cookie tray and putting the sauce in individual use portions and freezing. Once frozen remove each frozen patty and wrap individually then put in ziploc baggie.
Laura says
That is a great tip! Freezing the sauce for a single pizza crust means you would always have just enough. Thank you for sharing this!
Susu says
This looks delish! Is it still worth it without the red pepper? And I could I use bread that’s already baked? Thanks!
Laura says
Yes, I make it without the red pepper all the time! Since writing the recipe, I've learned that a pinch of fennel seeds really help to make it taste like authentic pizza sauce. I hope you try it! And yes, you could use store bought crusts that are frozen or pre-baked and then top it with the sauce and your toppings. A few minutes in the oven and it will be good! Enjoy!
Amber G. says
We LOVED how this sauce turned out! My son whom I made this for since he can't have tomatoes anymore, said this was the best pizza he's ever had. Win! I LOVE that my picky eater is also getting veggies in without knowing it!
Laura says
I am so happy to read this!! Thank you for sharing your review of this. I wish you many more (secretly healthy) pizza nights! And keep an eye on this space because I have a lot more tomato free recipes lined up. 🙂
Amber G says
I sure will! That will be super helpful! We tried this with spaghetti, and my little guy ate it, but he wasn't as thrilled with it for spaghetti as he was for pizza. Do you season it differently for spaghetti or have something different to recommend altogether?
Laura says
I totally agree it doesn't work on pasta. But! I have a pasta sauce recipe that I've been working on. Since he is requesting it, I'll move that to the front of the list to finish up! I'll have it up soon 🙂
Laura says
Hi again! Just wanted to update you that I have published a new pasta sauce and sloppy Joe recipe that are both tomato and nightshade free! I hope that you test it out and love it. 🙂