There’s no denying that kids just love tomato sauce. Often, introducing tomato sauce just a few times early in a baby/toddlers life can start the cycle of fussy eating. The amount of sugar and salt in store-bought tomato sauce will explode on their little tastebuds, and they will only want “more” and “more” and “MORE” until you wont be able to serve anything without a dollop. What’s so bad about that you might ask? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, 1 tablespoon (20ml) of tomato sauce contains more than the recommended daily intake (RDI) of sodium (salt) for 1-3 year olds and more than double the RDI for babies under 12 months – thats HUGE.

SO. The moral to all of that, is that if you are going to introduce tomato sauce, you should definitely look into making your own. It may not taste exactly the same as the store bought variety, but if you introduce homemade first the little ones won’t get the taste for such salty/sugary sauce and accept it much more freely.

Nutrition Note: In addition to being loaded with salt, store-bought tomato sauce is loaded with sugar… did you know it contains more than twice the amount of sugar compared with soft drink?!

Ingredients

• 1/2 small brown onion, finely chopped
• 400g tin no added salt diced tomato's
• 2 - 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper or white pepper
• 1 tbsp no added salt tomato paste
• 1 tbsp yellow mild mustard (optional)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Step 1

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium. Add the chopped onions and simmer for 5 minutes or until softened. -

Step 2

Add the tomato's and stir through. Lower the heat and simmer together for around 10-15 minutes (adding the vinegar half way through) until tomato's have reduced by half. -

Step 3

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Simmer together for at least 10 minutes until thick and tasty. -

Step 4

Puree the ingredients. Then, push through a sieve with the back of a spoon to get a nice smooth consistency. Freeze in small portions. -