This nightshade-free and AIP Classic Nomato Sauce without tomatoes is so similar in taste to tomato sauce, you might even fool your tomato-eating friends and family members. This nomato sauce recipe is made with sautéed vegetables, herbs, red wine vinegar, and honey and blended into a rich, silky, versatile red sauce.
Recipe by Nicole Charles on October 28, 2021
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT40M
Total time: PT50M
Rating
4.9 stars ( reviews)
Keywords
marinara sauce without tomatoes, blended red sauce, tomato-free red sauce, AIP tomato sauce
Ingredients
1.5 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup carrot, diced (about 2 medium sized carrots)
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup butternut squash, cubed
1 medium sized beet, finely cubed
1 tsp thyme (dried or fresh)
1 tsp basil (dried or fresh)
1 tsp oregano (dried or fresh)
1 tsp rosemary (dried or fresh)
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp honey or maple syrup for vegan
2 cups water
Categories
Sauces
Cuisine
Italian American
Steps
In a large stock pot, add olive oil and heat on medium heat. When the oil is hot, add onion, garlic, carrot, celery and squash and sauté 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add a splash of water if necessary to keep from sticking.
Once onions begin to become translucent, add in beets, salt and dried herbs and sauté 1-2 minutes.
Next, add in red wine vinegar and cook a couple minutes to allow the vinegar to evaporate.
Finally, add in water and honey or maple syrup. Bring to a low boil, reduce heat and cover.
Simmer on low for 30 minutes or until carrots, beets and squash are soft.
Once your veggies are soft, remove from heat and allow everything to cool.
Blend ingredients into a smooth sauce using an immersion blender or carefully transfer to a blender. Season with salt as necessary once blended.
Reviews
MG on 2024-08-25 (5 stars): This sauce is incredible. We made your lamb meatballs and it was a totally scrumptious dinner! Paired with spaghetti squash - amazing!! Thank you again for so many awesome recipes, Nicole :)
Christina on 2024-09-16 (5 stars): I made some adaptations to make it fit Acid Watcher Diet, and it was great! I'm looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thank you!
Noemi Rivera on 2024-12-05 (5 stars): This nomato suave could have fooled me, and I made it! Tastes similar to a tomato sauce and has the italian zest and flavor you’re looking for in a spaghetti sauce. I would recommend to give it a try!
Carla on 2025-02-21 (5 stars): I recently discovered that part of my arthritis is driven by inflammatory foods, and that nightshades make my joints hurt. I am delighted with this delicious recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Diana on 2025-06-12 (5 stars): This nomato sauce is truly delicious! Even if you can eat tomato sauce, you might like it even better and it's a great way to get a variety of veggies. I put it in my vegan, gluten-free black bean lasagna for a potluck supper last night and everyone raved about it. Since I have had to give up tomatoes and other nightshades, this sauce is a game changer for me. I can now make all my favorite dishes that call for tomato sauce by using this sauce instead, like pizza, stuffed shells, and vegan chili. I'm going to make an enormous pot of this sauce, freeze portions of it, and keep it on hand. Wow!
Ashlee on 2025-07-18 (5 stars): I’m experimenting with AIP (ish) and figuring out if I have high histamine so even though I have a whole garden of tomatoes, I’m trying to avoid them. I absolutely despise beets but decided I’d give this sauce a try, HOLY SMOKES!! This tastes just like pizza sauce and makes me excited to triple the recipe or more and stick some in the freezer!
shazbat on 2025-08-08 (5 stars): Oh my word! I made this late last night and it even smelt like tomato sauce when it was cooking.
The colour of my sauce is a bit more deep pink, rather than rich red, but the flavour is very convincing. The really great thing is I now get all the flavour of homemade tomato sauce but with extra veggies. What's not to like? 😍
Lilibud on 2025-08-11 (5 stars): This recipe is a Game Changer! Best nomato sauce I've tried. I can't tolerate nightshades and I've really missed tomato sauce.
Sheryl on 2025-08-30 (5 stars): I have made this 4 times, my husband loves it. Others noted it is a bit different but really enjoy it. I make 2 to 3 times batch, saute everything and put in my instant pot for 10 minutes.
I freeze in canning jars with the hard plastic lids.
I have had people offer to pay me to make it for them. A real winner.
I will saute some meat or AIP meatballs and dress it up with whatever I feel like at the time. even works in veggie soup to give it that tomatoe feel.
Great recipe.
Cari on 2025-09-24 (5 stars): This recipe (with some changes) is fantastic and a keeper!
I used Italian seasoning blend instead of the separate seasonings listed. I did wind up adding extra red wine vinegar at the end because it tasted flat to me. That didn't help much. I thought it would still make a great base for sloppy joes or chili, something with strong seasonings to help it out. After pondering what was missing for a couple days, I decided to try adding fresh squeezed lemon juice to brighten it up. That was the key!!
Michelle L. on 2025-10-08 (5 stars): This is the nomato sauce to make! I've made about 5 others before trying this one. Well, I'm hooked, this is the best! I will not be looking further, this is the recipe to make. Mine even came out orange (yes I used real beets, not canned) and it's still out of this world delicious! The closest I've come to real marinara sauce. The taste is 95%. Absolutely phenomenal and I'm so glad I made a double batch. I'm not Italian but I grew up with an Italian next door neighbor who taught me how to make "gravy" and red sauce. This is super close and for it not to have tomatoes, it's some type of sorcery.
Denisse on 2025-10-28 (5 stars): Painful joints and arthritis require a no-nightshades diet, but how does one prepare soups and entrees without tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes diced tomatoes, tomatoes??! I asked the question, did some research and discovered Nomato Sauce -- and your recipe! Delicious! Thank you for all your experimenting and for sharing with us. I'm thrilled to know I don't have to give up a staple and am looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Susan Underwoodd on 2025-11-04 (5 stars): simply amazing! do you have a nomato soup recipe?
Monica D on 2025-11-18 (5 stars): Thank you so much! This came out really great. My husband and children loved it. Added a few extra garlic cloves, subbed a handful or frozen cherries and 2 tsp tart cherry juice for the beet, because we didn’t have any on hand. Added a few anchovies and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and after blending added a bit more Italian seasoning and a squeeze of lemon juice at the end- also no butternut squash here on hand so I subbed 3/4 a can of pumpkin puree, added towards the end of the simmer. I know watching all those things cook together made me chuckle and I figured either it would be great for the chickens or the fam might actually like it! We ate it with sautéed gorund beef mixed in after blending over crispy gnocchi with chopped fresh basil. I may never tell my family what was in the pot but I assure you there was none leftover! Very forgiving recipe, can’t wait to try it with the beet and correct squash. Thank you for putting it together!
Christina on 2025-12-25 (5 stars): Hi,
I’m also low histamine, I added some tangy apples to the sauce instead of the wine and vinegar and it came out great! You want to peel and core the apples then chop them up and cook with the other vegetables. I used about 1.5 apples and I couldn’t pick out any apple flavor in the sauce but it definitely helps!
Genevieve on 2026-06-14 (5 stars): Awesome! Thanks for sharing this idea. I want to try it but was trying to think how to approach it for low histamine. So grateful for this idea!
Megan on 2026-01-08 (5 stars): I used this recipe in order to make your teriyaki chicken sheet pan recipe and I was so surprised at how yummy it all was!!! Thank you!
Diana Misiak on 2026-01-10 (5 stars): This the best thing I've tasted. Seriously. I love this. I did halve the amount of herbs ... but that's just to my liking.
Grace on 2026-02-25 (5 stars): I love this recipe! I’ve made it many times and it freezes well. Best part my local pizzeria makes my pies with my sauce!
Shirley P. on 2026-04-04 (5 stars): This is a perfect recipe. I had to substitute the red wine vinegar, for Red Wine. Perfection! MY husband doesn’t like anything he can see with vegetables in it. However I made it when he wasn’t home. I put some of the sauce in and on the top of the chicken meatloaf. I made him and it was delicious He really liked it.
I realized I accidentally put too much salt in the recipe. It was too salty. Research found that lemon juice should help me. Lo and behold, after putting a fresh squeeze of lemon juice in the sauce and stirring it all up, it took the salt flavor away. I was afraid to eat it that night. I was intending to add a bit more salt the next day. However when I tried a taste of the meatloaf and not adding anymore salt the flavor was perfection. Thank you once again !
Dianne on 2026-04-16 (5 stars): I wanted a non tomato-based sauce for enchiladas. I used packaged raw grated carrot and beetroot, with golden sweet potato because i didnt have butternut and added a sprinkle of masterfood Tuscan herbs to the listed ones. I wanted a hint of sweetness with depth so used tsp of dark cane sugar. I never use plain water in savory dishes, so I used vegetable stock. The dish exceeded my expectations. I didn't have any sour cream to dress the enchiladas with so i added a tiny splash of cider vinegar to some mayonaise and that was magic.
Lisa Johnson on 2026-05-12 (5 stars): I have done this using red wine vinegar. We love it! I tried another no-mato recipe with balsamic vinegar instead for the acid. It makes a huge difference in the tomato element of the flavor that we no-mo-nightshaders are missing out on (or at least for my maybe weird palate). And I've done various tries on the squash element. Canned pumpkin is easy, though you need to be cautious about the amount because it mellows out the sauce if you use too much...and it is actually good texture-wise. I would also say, maple syrup sweet can creep up faster than you expect. Basil is critical for us tomato basil lovers (YES!), otherwise, use herbs you prefer. Overall though, this recipe changed my life being able to have a desperately familiar sauce that my daughter and I can't eat with tomatoes.
Whitney on 2026-06-14 (5 stars): I just made this Nomato sauce tonight for dinner and it was so delicious!! Wow!! I almost cried happy tears as I ate it as it has been years that I have been unable to eat tomatoes and any marinara sauce. My husband loved it too, and he is a normal eater and claimed “it tastes like an Italian restaurant!” God bless you for creating this masterpiece!! I feel like my whole food world has opened up. It is so nice to enjoy food this much again. Thank you!!
