tomato substitute

[christianne42]

I am looking for a good substitute for the usual can of tomatoes in soups and stews - now that it is a little colder out, I have been looking at my soup and stew recipes (and slow cooker recipes) and most of them use a can of tomatoes. Does it work to just substitute broth? Often when I'm cooking, my substitutions make food too bland, and I want to avoid that if possible ...

Thanks!

[hoping4acure]

If you can tolerate red peppers...some one here once told me to char the skin off the pepper (roast it), peel them and smash them up and put seasoning in. I tried it once for "pizza" and it was very good. You could find some ideas in the ic cooking book too.


good luck!

[ICNDonna]

I have an excellent beef stew recipe that does not require tomatoes and nobody has ever said it is bland. It's fairly easy:

I use steak and cut it into cubes and brown thoroughly.
Add boiling water and chopped onions or leeks.
Add salt, a tsp of sugar (I use Splenda), a pinch of cloves or cinnamon, and two or three bay leaves (I remove the bay leaves before serving).

I then let it boil for at least two hours, then add slices of carrots and cut up potato.

It really does make a nice stew.

Donna

[christianne42]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try both - I've always enjoyed cooking, and the IC diet just presents some new challenges (to say the least).