Fire Roasted Tomato Taco Sauce

Have you ever tried fire roasted tomatoes?

I buy them in a can and they are irresistible. I’ve recently discovered an amazing way to whip them up into a sauce that is delicious in tacos AND over pasta!

Quick note: for those of you in the Minnesota area, don’t forget to check out my most recent giveaway!!

Fire Roasted Tomato Mania

This post involves an obsession as of late called fire roasted tomatoes. I swear I’ve used them in everything lately (when I’ve actually been at home able to cook..gosh I’m missing my cooking supplies!). I just can’t get over the sweetness of the tomatoes and the slight smoky flavor. I mean, I’m drooling all over my keyboard right now.

It’s no surprise I came up with a fire roasted taco sauce with the kick I’ve been on!

Last September I posted my enchiladas with fire roasted tomatoes recipe in September (side note: this is when we started looking for kittens…and we’ve had our Zoey Fluffy Butt for 4 months now! crazy!) and the tomato-y fun hasn’t stopped since then.

In fact, I think I’ve compulsively added fire roasted tomatoes on the grocery list almost every week for two months straight. Dave just rolls his eyes since he has been the shopper as of late. (no job = doing more household chores = bueno for Amanda and the blog!)

Fun side note: we’ve been using wunderlist (at Lee’s suggestion in one of her blogging tools posts) and it’s SWEET because you can create a list (such as a grocery list) and share it between multiple people. Lists make me happy. (I know, I’m a nerd.)

This recipe is just as simple and easy to throw together as the enchiladas—I promise!

Easy, Healthy Meal with Fire Roasted Tomato Taco Sauce

One of the requests I’ve had via my e-mail subscribers (<-you should sign up if you haven’t already!) has been for healthy, easy dinners. I think I nailed it with this one. You could even make the sauce and brown the hamburger beforehand when you are prepping your meals for the week so all you have to do is throw together the tacos and not have to worry about cleaning up a cooking mess. Because let’s face it, the cooking is fun, but the clean up is a chore. At least that’s the way I see it.

Easy peasy meal during the week.

For the taco sauce, if you have a food processor or a blender (check out the differences between the two here) it will come together in minutes. You can rough chop your veggies, sauté them and then blend ‘em all together with some taco seasoning. Normally I would consider chopping vegetables as something that takes time…but really the food processor does all the work for you here!

Also–a lot of the time I just use the pre-chopped veggies I find at Target. Call me lazy if you want, but I’m much more likely to cook with veggies that way!

fire roasted tomato taco sauce Leftovers:

I always say leftovers are good for 5-7 days in the fridge (unless otherwise noted) and can be frozen for two months. I know I froze some of this to use for later and it was just as delicious reheated!

A brilliant discovery I made when trying to figure out what to do with  the leftovers was putting them over pasta.

Oh my golly was this tasty! (of course I can’t find a photo…but please trust that it was amazing. I remember eating it and “mmmm”-ing while watching Unbreakable–a must-watch Netflix series.)

You can also use this for a yummy taco salad: reheat the meat and sauce separately and pile ontop of greens with a sprinkle of cheese and tortilla chips.

Semi-Healthy Notes:

Tomatoes are a major source of lycopene, a super powerful antioxidant (thought to prevent cancer), as well as beta carotene (helps with vitamin A), vitamin E, vitamin C and potassium.

Tomatoes are a food I’ve had to teach myself to like over time. I’m guessing the only interaction I had with tomatoes as a kid was on hamburgers, therefore possibly not very quality tomatoes. Once I decided to try a tomato when it was in season, sliced with salt on top—I fell head over heels. Isn’t it crazy the things we convince ourselves that we HATE?

[Tweet “Fire roasted tomato taco sauce..oh my yum!! #semihealthy #yesplease”]

Basically, you don’t have to force yourself to eat things you find repulsive, but it never hurts to keep trying them over the years. You never know…you may find a new food love!

 

Tell me…have you ever tried fire roasted tomatoes? What is one food that you used to hate as a kid, but love now? Another weird one of mine: grapes!!  

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Photo Editing Using Picmonkey and Photography with Nikon D5300 and Tasty Food Photography