Who would have guessed that sieved tomatoes had such a dangerous quality about them?

Starting on starch-free, I went for the easy option. Vegetables with tomato sauce. Add a packet for grated cheese, 10min in the oven and é voila, dinner was ready. Turns out that pre-packaged sieved tomatoes (and pre-packaged grated cheese for that matter) had a rather considerable amount of starch in it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the whole home-grown, organic approach to cooking. But making sieved tomatoes from scratch? Every single time? And tomatoes, let’s face it, are not the cheapest vegetables to be had (especially in winter time). My mother used to make a spicy chutney version of tomato sauce (posted earlier) when I was younger and I loved it. I realised now, that it is, in fact, a great way for getting taste back into your vegetable casseroles. Preserved properly, they will keep for up to 12 months.

I haven’t found a branded product yet that is starch-free, but I will keep on hunting for it.