The Best Nightshade Free Marinara Sauce (AIP, Instant Pot)
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This sauce is a nightshade-free marinara sauce that’s made without tomatoes! It’s AIP compliant, as well as Whole30, Paleo, and sugar-free.
If you were to ask me what my favorite food was when I was a kid, I probably would’ve said pizza and pasta. I mean, can you blame me? Who doesn’t love pizza? I grew up in New York in a Jewish/Italian American family, and my dad always used to joke that spaghetti sauce ran through the veins, and thus, mine.
That’s why my heart completely dropped when I first came to terms with my nightshade intolerance at 20 years old. No ketchup? No Caprese salad? No pizza?!
I went about nine months being nightshade free before I was eventually able to discover the glory of red sauce without tomatoes. Wait, what? How?! It’s a veggie-rich sauce made to taste like tomato sauce, but without the tomatoes. SCORE. Over the years, I’ve perfected my own version. It’s just the right flavor and consistency, and it’s made quickly and easily in the Instant Pot. You’re serious about 20 minutes away from having nightshade-free tomato sauce right now.
The Best Nightshade Free Marinara Sauce
The Ingredients You’ll Need For the Nightshade Free Marinara Sauce
Carrots
Carrots are the main veggie in this dish. They have a pretty neutral flavor and their color adds some of the red tint to the sauce.
Beets
This is the main veggie in the sauce that gives it its red color. I know some people don’t love beets, but really
Onion and garlic
These add a ton of flavor to the sauce. Technically, you can leave out the garlic, but you’ll miss a lot of the flavor.
Celery
Another crucial vegetable in this sauce.
Basil, parsley, and oregano
Lemon juice
Lemon juice adds that acidity that tomatoes naturally have without being overly vinegary. I just don’t love the taste of apple cider vinegar in this sauce, but you can use that as well.
The Appliances
The Instant Pot
If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet, I highly recommend it. It’s a safer pressure cooker that also has a slow cooker function, steam function, satuee function, and more. It’s saved me hours in the kitchen and can cook pretty much anything. I’ve included instructions to make this without an instant pot. However, it will more than double the cooking time, so seriously… this thing is life changing.
Vitamix
The Vitamix is one of my favorite kitchen appliances. It just blends so well, and the damper insert is perfect for making chunky sauces like this nice and smooth. You can use other high speed blenders as well!
Some things to consider…
I would not make any swaps rather than what may be noted in the section above.
All of the ingredients listed should be used as is to get a great product.
Your flavor will often vary depending on the veggies you have at the time.
Something that I’ve learned from cooking with real food ingredients (especially vegetables) is that you don’t get that identical product like you would with processed food. The flavor of every carrot is going to be a little bit different, some beets are stronger than others, and sometimes your basil is a bit milder… that’s okay! I’m used to my sauce always tasting just a tad different depending on the ingredients, the season, etc. so if it doesn’t taste identical each time, that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong!
What to pair this sauce with…
Compliant pasta
If you’re AIP, pair this sauce with spaghetti squash or zoodles! If you’re not AIP and can tolerate something like rice pasta or chickpea pasta (which are pictured in the picture above) go for it!
The following AIP recipes…
AIP Nightshade Free Marinara Sauce
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Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil, sub avocado oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 white onion, diced
- 2 ½ cup carrots, chopped
- 1 ¼ cups celery, about 4 stalks, chopped
- 1 ¼ cup beet, chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp parsley
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to the base of the instant pot and set to saute.
- Saute the onions and garlic for 2 minutes, before adding in the carrots, beets and celery. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Press cancel to turn off the saute function.
- Pour in the water and lemon juice and add the seasonings. Stir to combine.
- Lock the lid onto the instant pot and flip the the pressure release valve to closed. Press "manual" (it will default to high pressure" and use the "+" button to set the time to 14 minutes. Allow the instant pot to come to pressure and the sauce to cook.
- Once the sauce has finished, carefully release the pressure valve. Once depressurized, remove the lid and allow for the sauce to cool before blending it in a Vitamix or high speed blender until smooth.
- Season further to taste and enjoy!
Notes
- To adapt for the stove, use a large, deep sauce pot to saute the garlic and onion on low heat in olive oil until softened. Add the remainder of the veggies and saute for a few minutes. Add about 1-1.5 cups of water to the pot (just enough to cover the veggies) along with the herbs and bring to a simmer for about 30 minutes or until the veggies are completely softened. Allow to cool. Pour off some of the water if a thicker sauce is desired. Combine all of the of the veggies and seasonings with the lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth.
- The pasta in the background of the pictures is GF chickpea pasta, and is not AIP or paleo. See suggestions above for more options for what to pair this sauce with.
- All nutrition information is an estimation and will vary.
I’m sorry I doubted you, Michelle. I never thought this could actually taste like a nightshade laden tomato sauce. But it did, and it was amazing. THANK YOU.
SO glad you liked it, Lauren!!! Thank you!
Getting ready to do the plant paradox and looking for a spaghetti sauce. I didn’t have the celery, but it came out pretty good. Its definitely not our normal Barilla 5-cheese sauce, After the first half serving I put a generous amount of McCormick Italian Seasoning (with the grinder) more Himalayan salt and fresh ground tri-color pepercorns. I also had freshly grated manchego cheese. Those changes made it a keeper. We’ll see what celery does next time.
I’ve made nomato sauce before from other recipes and the results are always too sweet because carrots and beets are sweet. Where does this recipe fall in the sweetness spectrum?
Love the taste but how do I store it? I have 2 mason jars of it and don’t want it to go to waste.
I like to freeze extras in either glass or bags 🙂
Awesome recipe! But note: all that dicing of raw vegetables is unnecessary if you’re using a food processor to blend the veggies after they’re cooked. You can throw them all in the Instant Pot whole (and I didn’t even peel the beets because the skin rubs off easily under running water after cooking–much easier and less messy than peeling and dicing beforehand). I used a 1 lb bag of baby-cut carrots, two medium beets, two (peeled but still whole) onions, one stick of celery (instead of 4) and used lime juice instead of lemon as a matter of personal taste. I did chop the celery into 1 or 2-inch segments in case strings became an issue in the processor, but I don’t think they would have. I ate the Nomato sauce over cheese tortellini and LOVE it!!! I also found that adding a bit of ricotta and parmesan (with the tortellini) created a lasagne-like flavour that was far less trouble than building a whole lasagne. Thank you for this amazing recipe! I’ve made it twice already! I’m so excited to be able to cook recipes again that call for tomato sauce!!!
I can’t wait to try this…just wondering are the measurements the same as tomato/ pasta sauce…1 cup for 1 cup?
Yes, I use it 1:1 🙂
Since onions very so much in size, how big of an onion should be used here? Or how many cups post diced? Thanks!
I am going to make this today. I can not use onions or garlic. I am going to use ground asafetida as a substitute. In the future should I increase any of the other ingredients or add something else?
Fantastic and oh-so-easy in the Instapot!! I can’t tolerate nightshades and really wanted a sauce that made it seem like I was enjoying tomato sauce again. This is perfect!! And my guy — who hates beets — loves this!! Thanks!!
Sorry for previous comment. I was a dope and missed the part where you clearly state to add the spices. Anyway, great recipe. I enjoyed it.
I don’t see where in the instant pot recipe I am to add the basil, oregano and parsley except at the very end after it is cooked and blended. normally, don’t you at least simmer the dried spices with the other ingredients?
Any suggestions to replace the beets? I like them but get very ill after eating them.
The beets are kind of hard to replace… you can try it without but it would be much more of an orange-colored sauce.
Hi, I love this recipe but can’t have celery due to a food sensitivity. Is there anything I can use as a replacement?
You can try adding a bit more onion for flavor!
This is fantastic. Thank you so much for making easy tasty recipes. I am new to autoimmune disease and diet and am a true foodie. So glad to have alternatives ways to make old favorites. Kudos to you Michelle.
So you so much, Sue!!!
Just like tomato sauce! Full disclosure here, I haven’t eaten tomatoes since the beginning of March 2018 so maybe I’m not the best judge of authenticity. This sauce fulfilled all of my memories of fabulous marinara. I’d say it is better than traditional marinara since I can eat it and not have an inflammatory response. We mixed it with cooked ground turkey meat and enjoyed it over sweet potato noodles. It was mind blowing. I used my pressure cooker and Blendtec.
My husband says that, “this will be a weekly staple at our house.” Thank you for helping us incorporate new vegetables and flavors into our diets. We loved it!
Wow. Let me just start by saying even my 5 year old and 1 year old ate this sauce. I had it over zucchini noodles and gave it to the rest of the family over pasta. Also, I hate beets, but I loved this sauce. My 8 year old neighbour came over and thought it was delicious. Win win win. (No, it doesn’t taste like tomato sauce, but it does taste delicious)
Thank you so much, Myra! So glad you liked it 🙂