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Iceni Magazine | February 15, 2025

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Should You Make Your Own Sauce From Scratch?

Should You Make Your Own Sauce From Scratch?

Shop-bought sauces are quick, convenient and relatively inexpensive but are they as good as homemade sauces or should you be making your own sauces from scratch instead?

There are pros and cons to making sauces from scratch. In this article, we’ll highlight some of the potential benefits and address the inconveniences and potential pitfalls involved.

Why you should make your own sauce from scratch

Sauces really bring a dish to life, especially a good, homemade sauce using fresh ingredients and bursting with flavour. While shop-bought sauces have their place, many contain high amounts of salt and sugar, both of which can be bad for your health. Some cheese-based sauces also contain high levels of fat.

It can be tempting to think this doesn’t matter too much if you’re not using them every day but in fact, when you consider all the sauces you might consume during an average week – from ketchup and mayonnaise through to pasta sauce, it can all quickly add up and mean your meals may not be as healthy as you think.

The health benefits of making your own sauce

One of the biggest advantages of making your own sauces from scratch is that you control exactly what goes in them. Not only does this mean that you can season the sauce exactly to your liking but it also means that it can be healthier too.

When making a sauce at home you know there are no hidden ingredients and you decide exactly how much salt or sugar to add. You can also add plenty of fresh ingredients, which will not only make your sauce thicker and tastier but also mean that it includes more fibre, which we all need for gut health and we should be aiming to consume around 30g per day.

Fibre can be found in a variety of foods such as wholegrains, beans,  fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes are a great sauce of fibre so when you whip up a homemade pasta sauce or ketchup using fresh tomatoes, you’ll instantly be increasing your daily fibre intake.

Tomatoes are also high in lots of essential vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin K, as well as calcium. Unfortunately, when it comes to premade, shop-bought sauces, the number of fresh tomatoes used varies, so you can’t always rely on them to count towards one of your five a day. If you make your bolognese or lasagne sauce from scratch, however, then you can ensure you get these vital vitamins and minerals.

The disadvantages to making sauces from scratch

Of course, there are some drawbacks to making sauce from scratch too. For one thing, you’ll need to know how. Making any meal from scratch can be daunting if you’ve never done it before but there are plenty of easy-to-follow recipes online and for a basic pasta sauce you won’t need many ingredients. Most rely on a base of tomatoes, onion and garlic with salt, pepper and herbs to taste and these can be used to create a range of dishes including pasta and pizza.

To make sauces you’ll also need your own equipment such as utensils and saucepans and obviously, one disadvantage of this is that you’ll have more washing up to do afterwards!

In summary

Making sauce from scratch is more effort and if you lead a busy lifestyle as so many of us do, you might be tempted to skip it and grab a jar of shop-bought sauce instead but most basic sauces don’t take very long to make and if you try it, you may be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your food is ready as well as how great it tastes.


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