Simple, Classic Rancheros Sauce
A garden tomato based sauce with tomatoes, onions & peppers.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 5 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 bell peppers, any color or a mixture, diced
- 1 jalapeno or Serrano, minced, charred, peeled & deseeded, see note
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 29 ounce can of whole tomatoes & juice, tomatoes pulsed in a blender or crushed by hand. Fire roasted tomatoes, if you’d like. See note.
- 1 to 2 teaspoons vinegar, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar, to taste
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan, add onion and peppers and cook until slightly softened. Add garlic, cumin and cayenne and cook for just a minute longer. Add tomatoes and juice and simmer until vegetables are cooked through and softened and sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. When a spoon is run through the sauce it should not immediately fill in.
Add the sugar, salt to taste and vinegar and cook for a minute or two longer to blend the flavors.
Feel free to increase/decrease the amounts of sugar, salt, Jalapeno or Serrano, cayenne, vinegar, etc. to suit your taste.
Notes
Notes: to prepare the jalapeno or serrano, char over a gas burner or put on a piece of foil on a sheet tray and broil, turning as needed until charred. When finished, put in a small bowl and cover for several minutes. Remove the charred coating.
Tomatoes: In the summer, I often use fresh tomatoes, about 2 pounds, peeled & seeded, with their juice.