Spaghetti is a staple at our house, and I imagine many other homes. It is cheap, easy, and everyone loves it.
We eat it often.
I’ve perfected a recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce over the last 15 years or so using canned tomato sauce (not the Prego type stuff, just straight tomato sauce that I added seasonings to) in the past.
But the amount of sodium and additives/preservatives started to bother me. Plus, a can of tomato sauce only has a shelf life of a year or two and I wanted something that would last longer.
So I’ve switched to the sodium-free, additive-free, 8-year shelf-life tomato powder from Thrive.
Normally, when I make this recipe I still add some fresh sausage and mushrooms. But for the purpose of this experiment, I used mostly shelf-stable ingredients!
Yes, Thrive also has freeze dried sausage and mushrooms, 2 of my favorite things. I added both to my powder spaghetti sauce and it came out amazing!
The best part, my family barely noticed the difference from my traditional sauce versus the tomato sauce from tomato powder version!
They ate the new sauce for 10 minutes before my son asked why there were no REALLY BIG bites of sausage (the freeze-dried sausage is a smaller uniform size). So, except for the sausage size, there was not other difference to them – which means the flavor was spot on to my normal sauce.
Powder Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Just a few simple ingredients and you will have yummy powdered pasta sauce that your family will never believe is from a tomato powder.
- Author: Misty
- Prep time: 15 mins
- Cook time: 10 mins
- Total time: 25 mins
- Serves: 5 cups sauce (40 oz)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup freeze dried sausage crumbles
- 1 tablespoon freeze dried onion
- 1/ 2 cup freeze dried mushrooms (optional)
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup tomato powder
- 1.5 teaspoons dried parsley
- 1.5 teaspoons dried basil
- 1.5 teaspoons oregano
- 1.5 teaspoons freeze dried Italian seasoning
- 1.5 – 2 teaspoons salt
- 1.5 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup freeze dried tomato dices
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large saute pan over medium high heat.
- When oil is hot, add 1 cup of dry freeze dried sausage crumbles, 1 tablespoon dry onion, and 1/2 cup freeze dried mushrooms.
- Saute for about 30 seconds.
- Add 4 cups of water to the pan.
- Add 1/2 cup of tomato powder and whisk until smooth.
- Turn heat down to simmer.
- Add 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley, oregano, dried basil and Italian seasoning then stir.
- Add 1.5 – 2 teaspoons of salt and garlic powder
- Add 1/4 cup packed brown sugar.
- Let simmer for 5 -10 minutes.
- Slowly add 1/2 cup freeze dried tomato dices and fold them in gently.
- Let simmer for another 10 minutes.
Be sure to taste before serving! I like my tomato sauces sweet bit sweet and you may not. So double check that the sugar does not turn you off and make any adjustments as needed to taste.
For me – and my family this recipe is perfection!
Below are the steps with images so you can see the process.
Step 1
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large saute pan over medium-high heat.
When the oil is hot, add 1 cup of the freeze dried sausage crumbles, 1 tablespoon of dry onion, and 1/2 cup of dried mushrooms.
Saute for about 30 seconds.
Step 2
Add 4 cups of water to the pan.
The sausage will de-glaze and begin to create a nice rich aroma.
Step 3
Slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of tomato powder until smooth.
Turn the heat down to simmer.
Give it five minutes or so to thicken. If you like your sauce a bit thicker add 1-2 more tablespoons of tomato powder.
Step 4
Add 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley, oregano, dried basil and Italian seasoning.
Add 1.5-2 teaspoons of salt and garlic powder.
Add 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (optional, but adds a nice touch of sweetness).
Stir until well blended.
Step 5
Add 1/2 cup freeze dried tomato and fold into the sauce gently.
Let simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Taste to make sure the flavor is right for your family and remove from heat.
Plate it up over spaghetti noodles and enjoy!
…….
And there you have it! An easy, yummy, homemade powdered tomato sauce. Remember to test and play with it to make the flavors your own! I prefer mine sweet, but you can reduce or eliminate the sugar and get a whole new flavor.
This is meant to be a base for the tomato powder – but the possibilities are limitless!
If you have given this recipe a try – let me know what you think!
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce With Tomato Powder
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup freeze dried sausage crumbles
- 1 tablespoon freeze dried onion
- 1/2 cup freeze dried mushrooms optional
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup tomato powder
- 1.5 teaspoons dried parsley
- 1.5 teaspoons dried basil
- 1.5 teaspoons oregano
- 1.5 teaspoons freeze dried Italian seasoning
- 1.5-2 teaspoons teaspoons salt
- 1.5 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup freeze dried tomato dices
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large saute pan over medium high heat.
- When oil is hot, add 1 cup of dry freeze dried sausage crumbles, 1 tablespoon dry onion, and 1/2 cup freeze dried mushrooms.
- Saute for about 30 seconds.
- Add 4 cups of water to the pan.
- Add 1/2 cup of tomato powder and whisk until smooth.
- Turn heat down to simmer.
- Add 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley, oregano, dried basil and Italian seasoning then stir.
- Add 1.5 – 2 teaspoons of salt and garlic powder
- Add 1/4 cup packed brown sugar.
- Let simmer for 5 -10 minutes.
- Slowly add 1/2 cup freeze dried tomato dices and fold them in gently.
- Let simmer for another 10 minutes.
Notes
…….
Misty, thank you for this recipe! I only used 1T brown sugar per our less sweet preference. I also added 2 T dehydrated carrots and 1 T FD celery just to add a few more vegetables. Thank you for sharing such a good recipe. We love it. It will be a regular on the food rotation now. You are a genius with food storage!
Yay! I’m so glad it worked for you Betty! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
As I was reading the ingredients for your spaghetti sauce, tomato powder was listed. I read on a you tube or a blog that the home canner keeps her tomato peelings and then dehydrates themn and then runs them thru her spice mill or food processor, turning the dried tomato skins into tomato powder. I blanch tomatoes in boiling water for about a minute, the skins slide right off and then I lay them on the dehydrator trays and dry them. I either store them in vacuum sealed bags or in airtight containers if I plan on using them pretty quickly. I was making a stew the other day and used some of the tomato skins, broken up and the stew got thick, using my “homemade” tomato powder. The only thing not used when i canned tomatoes was the core.
Great tip Kathy. Thanks!
I have a book called Meals in Jars and have decided that instead of putting the “mixture” in jars and using up my canning jars; I’ll make up the mixture and put it in vacum sealed bags. Putting the recipe on a card inside the vacummed bag and then being able to make the “meal” at a moments notice with just wet ingredients. Or better yet using margaring/butter powder and anything else dehydrated that I can buy or make myself.
Yvonne..your emergency is why I am trying my best to keep my freezer(s) /refigerator as empty as I can. I buy when things are on sale and then either dehydrate or can/preserve..Canning seems the best for me as then I have liquid already in the jar and don’t need to worry about water shortage. I love your site, Misty, because I learn so much and at 65 that’s a blessing :0)
Glad to have you and your experience here Kathy!
Misty,
I am using this recipe tonight for supper! We have had an emergency at our house. We have lost not one but TWO refrigerators in the last two weeks! One fridge is 9 months old and the other is 28 months old. One fridge is in our new house and the other is in our 5th wheel camper (which we actually live and travel in). I don’t know if you are aware of warranty situations with appliances, but at least with the brands that we own, if you have a warranty situation they will get to you when they can. The 9 month old fridge took 5 days before they could get one of their “approved technicians” to come out and it is still not fixed. The 28 month old fridge went out on a Saturday evening so we were unable to get a repairman out until Monday (we had the extended warranty) but they came right out. Unfortunately, the compressor went out and had to be ordered which took about 5 days to arrive and then another 3 days to get the appointment for them to come out to install it. Needless to say, we lost everything in the fridges (actually we didn’t notice the fridges were out until most of it was spoiled but that’s a whole other story!) So, being without refrigeration, I am using this emergency to try out my 100% food storage cooking. This would be similar to an emergency situation without electricity. So far, so good! I am so glad that I had already been cooking with my food storage for a couple of years and I am familiar with using it, though I don’t usually use 100% food storage–I usually use a combination of food storage and fresh. This has been a good time to work with cutting down on the amount that I cook so that there is no waste for just two people since we cannot save the leftovers–which would also be true in most emergency situations. Thank you for all of the help and recipes and to Thrive for the excellent foods that we have been using. It is a blessing! Especially now! 😀
Yvonne! Thank you so much for your kind comment! WOW! What a mess with your fridges. Goodness. I’m so glad you are finding your Thrive helpful! (-:
Thank you Misty! It has also pointed out that I need to look at my recipes and adjust them for 2 people for times when refrigeration is not available so that I don’t have a lot of wasted food. 🙂
Just a question for you Misty…if you were to make this recipe with Sausage TVP instead of the Sausage Crumbles would you do anything differently? I’ve got TVP in my home store, but not any of the REAL stuff yet. 🙂
Tiffany, I honestly don’t know. I don’t use the TVP. Try it and let me know!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Misty, for this 100% Food Storage Recipe. It surely sounds delicious and the photos alone make me want to try this recipe. Since we are preparing long term storage for catastrophic events, such as those where there would likely not be fresh ingredients readily available, we treasure the recipes you provide that focus on ingredients found in our storage. This one is already saved for future use.
I’m glad you will use it Deb!