Make the most of your garden-fresh tomatoes with this Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce. Make a few big batches now and freeze it to use all winter long.
Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce
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Summer tomatoes are delicious, like nothing else! But how can you save those amazing garden-ripe tomatoes? With this super-easy tomato sauce! Make up a couple of batches, then can it or freeze it to save for later.
We grow a lot of tomatoes, so we can a lot of tomato sauce. This is – by far – the easiest way I have found to make tomato sauce! The best part is you only need 3 things – a 6-quart slow cooker, an immersion blender, and a spoon. (A measuring cup, a measuring spoon, and a garlic press are all nice, too. But you can make do without those if you need to!)
How Do You Make Tomato Sauce?
You don’t even need to cook the tomatoes first. Just cut them into roughly equal size pieces (I cut them into quarters), and toss them in the slow cooker. Add in some garlic, some sugar, and some other spices, and you’re all set! Cover it up, turn it on, and forget about it for a little while.
Once the tomatoes are nice and soft, just use an immersion blender to blend everything up, right there in your slow cooker. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender. Just be careful when you’re transferring things back and forth – those tomatoes are hot!
How Do You Thicken Tomato Sauce?
Roma tomatoes are great for this sauce. Romas don’t have quite as much liquid, so they make a thicker sauce. You can use any kind of tomato you want, you just may need to cook your sauce longer to thicken it up a bit. You can either do this in your slow cooker with the lid off for a few hours (your house will smell amazing!), or simmer it on the stovetop to thicken it when you’re getting ready to use it in a recipe.
Enjoy!
How to Store Fresh Fruits & Vegetables
Not quite ready to make this sauce? Here are our best tips for storing those tomatoes until you are ready. Grab your free printable cheat sheet!
3 Ways to Take the Fear Out of This Recipe
- How to Convert Oven Times to Slow Cooker Times – free printable
- Types of Garlic
- Summer Fruits & Vegetables in Season – free printable
3 More Recipes to Try
Printable Recipe Card for Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce
- 6 pounds tomatoes
- ¼ cup sugar
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Quarter tomatoes and cut out the core. Chop tomatoes into roughly equal sizes and place in a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Add sugar, garlic, Italian seasoning, and olive oil to the slow cooker.
- Stir to mix.
- Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.
- When tomatoes are soft, use an immersion blender to puree the tomatoes into a sauce.
- Continue cooking on high, uncovered, for 2-4 hours to let the sauce thicken.
- Use as you would use store-bought tomato sauce.
- Freeze or can leftovers.
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Carolyn says
09/25/2017 at 10:23 amThank you so much for this recipe. I’m pretty sure I’ll be using it – we have hundreds of tomatoes set outside.
Marybeth Feutz says
09/26/2017 at 3:07 pmThis makes tomato sauce so much easier than cooking it on the stove. Enjoy!
Bonnie says
09/30/2017 at 2:17 pmHow much will this make?
Marybeth Feutz says
10/05/2017 at 10:41 pmIt depends a little on how long you cook it down to make a thinner sauce. It should make between 6-8 cups of sauce.
Jan Thomas says
08/06/2018 at 9:20 pmthis is how I cook mine! Great Post! Perfect for our Farmers Market Week Recipe Collection Link UP for Celebrate 365 Blog Party!
Marybeth Feutz says
08/10/2018 at 12:18 pmIt took me too long to realize how simple it really is to make homemade tomato sauce!