As we decided that occasionally we will include bread to our diet I came up with the idea, that it will be much healthier and definitely more tasty to eat home baked bread, rather than supermarket one. As came out I’m not as big fan of bread as I thought, most of it is for my partner. And as we didn’t have sandwiches for over a year I had to look through my memory to find what we can have with a sandwich apart from butter and cheese. And I came up with idea of the sun dried tomato paste I used to make for sandwiches. This paste it’s a homemade version of one we sometimes bought in the shop. Obviously if you make it yourself it’s not only cheaper, but also you can alternate the taste by adding different spices – like chilli flakes for example.

Dun-dried tomatoes are great in the Winter time as a replacement for a fresh ones. There’s nothing more disappointing than to buy tomatoes that looks great but taste like nothing. And lets be honest – most tomatoes from the supermarket just taste like nothing. They absolutely lack of any flavour, even though they look really pretty and juicy. That’s why I prefer cherry tomatoes, and always buy local ones.

Sun-dried tomatoes will also be more beneficial for you, even though they contain less vitamin C then the fresh ones (I mean fresh naturally grown), sun-dried tomatoes have approximately 20 % more bioavailable lycopene than raw tomatoes. Lycopene is the bright red pigment of tomatoes, and it is a precursor to the production of beta-carotene in the tomato plant. Lycopene in tomatoes may prevent the development of prostate, rectal, colon and some stomach cancers. And is more readily available for absorption if it is consumed with oil or heated.* Apart from that it’s a great source of vitamin C, A and E.

You can use this paste in many ways: to spread on your bread, as a dip or by adding to pasta. Add different spices to enhance the flavour – I added garlic and some fresh basil. If you like a spicy flavour sprinkle some chilli flakes to it and enjoy however you like.

I served mine with homemade spelt bread. If you’d like to know how I made it, just let me know in the comments.

sun-dried tomato paste

INGREDIENTS:

• jar of sun-dried tomatoes
• cream cheese to taste
• 1 garlic clove
• fresh basil leaves
• optionally: pinch of chilli flakes

DIRECTIONS:

Drain tomatoes of the oil and pop them into a blender. Add 1 garlic clove and blend until smooth. Add as much cream cheese as you like. If you like stronger tomato flavour add less cream cheese (or none). If you like it more creamy and gentle add more.

Finally add some chopped basil leaves and if you like it spicy add pinch of chilli flakes. Give it a good stir and spread on the bread or use as a dip.

You can store the paste in the fridge for about 3 days.

*https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/carotenoids-found-tomatoes-6020.html