Enchilada Sauce

Whenever I go out for Mexican food I always order the same thing: Cheese Enchiladas. Sure, I like other things on the menu. But I love enchiladas so it's a safe bet that I won't be disappointed when my food arrives. But really what it comes down to is that I'm in love with red enchilada sauce. It's good on eggs, it's good on tortillas, it's good mixed with beans and rice. So it's only natural for me to have my own recipe for the good stuff at home, right? You can use canned/bottled tomato sauce for the following recipe to speed things up a bit, but I haven't used any canned tomatoes in my house for at least a month. It's been awesome! (Thank you garden!)

Enchilada Sauce

10 large tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
1/2 medium onion
1 green chili pepper
1 carrot (optional- it helps sweeten things up a bit without adding any sugar)
3 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp red chili powder
1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt

1.  Wash and remove stems from tomatoes and peppers. Peel onion. Place produce into the wet container of your Vita-mix in the following order: tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrot, garlic. Turn machine on Variable speed 2 and gradually increase speed until all the vegetables have been pulled into the blades. Use your tamping stick if necessary to push produce down. Turn speed up to high and process for 2-3 minutes. Pour into a 5-qt saucepan or Dutch oven.
2.  Cook on medium-high until boiling. Reduce heat to medium and maintain a low boil until mixture is thickened (about 20 minutes).
3.  Add spices, stir to combine. Continue to cook for an additional 5-10 minutes or until desired consistency. Makes 2-3 cups sauce.

*To make this sauce using canned tomato sauce, skip the first two steps. Use three 8oz. cans of tomato sauce.

**You can bottle this recipe if you'd like using a pressure canner. Process pints 35 minutes, at 15 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure canner. If you quadruple this recipe it will make about 6 pints sauce.

***As always, if you don't have a Vita-mix, just dice your vegetables (carrots, onion and peppers) and saute them in about 2 Tbsp olive oil until soft before adding to a traditional blender to puree.