Crockpot Tomato Sauce
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Crockpot Tomato Sauce is so easy to make! Ditch the jarred sauce and let your slow cooker do all the work for a delicious tomato sauce!
Wondering how to make homemade tomato sauce? Look no further. This Healthy Crockpot Tomato Sauce is the BEST! Growing up in an Italian family where sauce and pasta are staple dishes, we never ate jarred sauce, and honestly, once you try this, you won’t want to either.
Making your own sauce is SO much cheaper. Plus, it’s easy, and it tastes way better than anything you’ll find at the grocery store (also, no salt!)!
Sauce is easy to make on the stovetop, but when you let your crockpot do the work, it’s even better. The tomatoes cook low and slow, creating a rich, flavorful spaghetti sauce that is so yummy!
If you have 10 minutes to spare in the morning, you can make this for dinner tonight by just tossing everything in your crockpot.
You can even prep it the night before—just sauté the onion and garlic, mix everything in the crockpot, and store the base in the fridge. In the morning, pop it into the crockpot, turn it on, and go about your day.
Crockpot Tomato Sauce Tips
- Be Prepared for leftovers! . If you’re just one or two people, I recommend making the full recipe and freezing half of it. I store my sauce in these freezer molds and just pop it in the freezer.. then when I need a fast dinner or lunch, I will take it out of the freezer the night before, defrost and enjoy.
- Add meat for flavor: I love this Healthy Turkey Meatballs recipe or our Homemade Meatballs for adding into the sauce! This Chuck Roast Pasta Sauce is also delicious!
- Use fresh herbs if you can.. they just taste 100x better and give SO much flavor!
- You can also use this sauce in recipes like my Crockpot Stuffed Peppers or Unstuffed Pepper Bowls.
Ingredients:
Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee for the extra virgin olive oil.
Tomatoes – I prefer to make this with canned crushed tomatoes, but you can make it with whole tomatoes that you puree or hand crush, but you might get a watery sauce. If using fresh tomatoes, the stovetop is better. You could also try our Fresh Tomato Sauce Recipe!
Fresh herbs – This recipe calls for dried herbs for accessibility, but I prefer to use fresh herbs (fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh parsley) if available. Depending on what you use, I usually use this ratio: 3 tablespoons fresh = 1 teaspoon dried herbs. You can add more or less dried herbs to taste.
Red Pepper – If you prefer a less spicy sauce, simply omit hot pepper flakes
Instructions
- Cook your onions/garlic in olive oil on the stove until translucent. Stir into the crockpot with the remaining ingredients.
- Cover with a lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours. If you can stir it occasionally, that’s great too – but if not, it will still be delicious!
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Adding meat to this sauce:
We like to add cooked meat to our sauce. Our Healthy Turkey Meatballs, Ground Beef Meatballs or italian sausage to the crockpot while it’s cooking. I’ll bake the meatballs the day before I’m going to make sauce, and then just put the completely cooked meatballs right into the sauce while it cooks in the crockpot.
It makes the meatballs SO tender.. they literally fall apart!
Whether you add meat or stick to meatless, this Crockpot Tomato Sauce is LOADED with flavor and super easy to make.
Ways to Use Healthy Crock Pot Tomato Sauce
Here are our favorite ways to use this recipe:
- Over pasta- these Homemade Ricotta Cavatelli are my favorite!
- Over zucchini noodles
- Mixed in with Whole30 Stuffed Peppers
- Freeze it for another day
- Add a little bit to this Healthier Alfredo Sauce to make a creamy red pasta sauce
- With Homemade Ground Beef Meatballs or Healthy Turkey Meatballs
You can also try this Rosemary Chicken Sauce or Healthy Bolognese if you’re looking for a higher protein meat sauce. If you’re looking for a cream sauce, try Healthy Penne alla Vodka, Healthy Alfredo Sauce, or Healthy Lemon Cream Sauce.
How to Thicken Sauce:
This spaghetti sauce is thick as it is. If you want to make it thicker, you can try cooking it for longer or adding some tomato paste.
Turn your slow cooker on high to try to thicken it. Be careful to watch your sauce towards the end because it could burn.
storage
How long does tomato sauce last in the fridge?: This tomato sauce will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container. We love to store it in a mason jar.
Freezing: You can freeze this sauce recipe for up to 3 months. Make large batches for easy meal prep! We like these containers for freezing.
Reheating: You can reheat this sauce recipe in the microwave or on the stove. Reheat directly from the fridge or freezer, or thaw completely and reheat.
Crockpot Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- In a small sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heatl. Sauté onions and garlic for about 5 minutes or until translucent.
- While the onions and garlic cook, add crushed tomatoes, basil, parsley, black pepper, oregano and red pepper to the crockpot base.
- Once the onions and garlic have cooked, add to the tomato mixture in the crockpot base. Stir together well until combined.
- Set the crockpot to low for 6-8 hours. You can set it to high for 4-6 hours, but we really recommend cooking on low. Some crockpots can run very hot and can cause the sauce to burn.
- Make sure to stir the sauce every hour or so to prevent it from sticking.
- Once cooked, serve the sauce over pasta of choice. We also like to add cooked meatballs and sausage to the sauce for extra flavor. It also makes them SO tender!
Notes
- Fresh herbs – I prefer to use fresh herbs in this recipe. I like to use 3 tablespoons of fresh herbs for every 1 teaspoon of dried herbs.
Can I make this sauce in my instant pot?
No I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s meant to be made in the crockpot. Tomato sauce often leads to a burn notice in the instant pot in my experience!