An easy no-cook low carb marinara sauce that is loaded with flavor, not sugar! It’s the perfect keto tomato sauce for Fathead Pizza, or to serve with zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash when you need a keto pasta fix!
I’m posting this really easy low carb marinara sauce recipe because I’ll be including two recipes that call for keto marinara sauce in next week’s 7 Day Keto Meal Plan. I will also update old posts to include a link to this recipe.
Why should you bother to make your own keto marina sauce?? Store bought jarred sauce is convenient, but almost always has added sugar and fillers. To get a good one that isn’t loaded with junk, it can cost as much $8 or more!
My usual marinara sauce recipe contains a lot of onions and garlic, which can really bust your net carb budget for the day. So I’m giving you this super easy, and much lower in carbs, “no chop” version that you can literally make in five minutes. Then freeze it in 1/2 cup portions for whenever you need it.
Wanna know what’s crazy awesome about it?
YOU WON’T EVEN NEED A POT TO MAKE IT.
I kid you not, I never cook this sauce before using it! I heat it before eating it in a recipe, but I usually make it without simmering it at all. I find that the longer you cook a simple meatless sauce like this one, the more flavor you lose. I could literally drink this out of the container – that’s how flavorful it is!
The key to this delicious keto marinara sauce is to start with the best quality tomatoes. We always use certified San Marzano (the brand doesn’t matter) tomatoes, and it makes a world of difference. It costs a bit more per can, but since you don’t eat a ton of it on keto anyway, trust me it’s worth the price (and still cheaper than a decent store-bought marinara.)
If you can’t find, or don’t want to pay for certified San Marzano tomatoes, then any no sugar added whole tomatoes will work in this keto marinara recipe – but the flavor won’t be as good.
Easy Keto Marinara Sauce – Low Carb
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
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An easy low carb recipe for keto marinara or pizza sauce!
Ingredients
- 28 oz can Peeled San Marzano Tomatoes (no sugar added)
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp salt (add more if necessary)
Instructions
- Puree the tomatoes, olive oil, and 1/2 cup of the liquid from the can in a small blender or magic bullet.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Notes
Tomatoes are a natural product and the flavor can vary. If you find your sauce isn’t naturally sweet enough, you can add 1 teaspoon of erythritol or another carb free sweetener of your choice if you aren’t on the Whole 30.
Don’t omit the juice from the tomatoes during pureeing or you’ll end up with less sauce – and your concentration of carbs will be higher per serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 84
- Fat: 7g
- Carbohydrates: 3g net
- Protein: 1g
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I’ve used this recipe COUNTLESS times for everything from pizza sauce, to dipping sauce, to spaghetti sauce. It’s always delicious and super easy to make.
★★★★★
Just made. Will be made again- lovely
★★★★★
I tried out this recipe last week but I opted for some cheaper crushed tomatoes and it came out tasting very good. It was great for some tasty tortilla pizza. I think next time I’ll add 1 tbsp of tomato paste to see how that affects the flavor. I have a few cans to try as I got crushed, puree, and whole peeled tomatos so I could compare the effort vs results to decide on how I’d like to keep going with this. :D Now my only real problem is it’s a pain to get that sauce into the mason jars sometimes.
Oh yes and I also experimented with simmering the sauce vs. no heat and I agree the sauce is MUCH better when not heated.
Despite all the great reviews, I need to throw my 2 cents in. FANTASTIC!!! Absolutely delicious and so versatile! Thank you!
★★★★★
How do you make this with fresh tomatoes?
Blanche tomatoes, it’s pretty much the same, except you might want to reduce them by simmering them a while to get rid of some of the excess water.
The canned to fresh tomato ratio is (depending on the type of tomato) 10 to 12 normal sized tomatoes equals 28 oz of canned. As mentioned above moisture content can vary with fresh tomatoes so simmer or not as needed. Just as a side note if using smaller (or unusually large tomatoes) go by weight, 2 pounds equals approximately 28 oz. of canned.
I would wish you good luck but I think it is better towish you
“Yum”
-Alex-
I cannot get enough of this! It is delicious. How long would you recommend storing it in the fridge?
★★★★★
Up to a week should be fine.
I love this sauce although I amended the recipe a bit. Instead of powdered onion & garlic I use fresh. I also add a carrot and some celery. I sweat the fresh veggies first then blend them in with the tomatoes. Delicious. I freeze in single portions and serve over zucchini or spaghetti squash.
Love it! Finally found a marinara sauce that has a rich tomato flavour. I added extra oregano garlic and basil.
★★★★★
Delish! For those that don’t think it is thick enough, add a couple TBLS grated parm cheese (like Kraft) from the can. It works miracles.
★★★★★
Could you make extra and freeze this?
Yes!
I was surprised at how tasty this sauce is, seemed to good to be true! I made skinny chicken parmesan with this sauce and it turned out amazing! Can’t wait to try it with homemade pizza!
★★★★★
This sauce is the best! I was searching for an easy sauce not necessarily a Keto recipe. I have done this twice now. The first time was for turkey meatballs and the second time as sauce for pizza. The 1st time I didn’t have red wine vinegar and while it wasn’t bad without it was even better with it. Also, I love letting this simmer on the stovetop for as long as possible! Thanks for a great recipe!
No matter how I try to log this into myfitnesspal, the carbs are awful high…Any idea why? Not sure but the sauce comes up to 40 plus carbs!!!! I LOVE this sauce, but what in high acres am I doing wrong?
★★★★
I had the same problem! I found out it’s the garlic powder that the app defaults too. When I did the bulk add it was over 1,200 calories JUST for garlic powder. Also, you have to change the tomatoes to “Italian peeled tomatoes (Cento).”
Once I made those changes my numbers came out the same as hers.
Thanks Meghan!
I love this sauce! I make it all the time and love how good it tastes and how easy it is to make. I actually started buying crushed tomatoes and just whisk in the rest of the ingredients so I don’t have to use the immersion blender.
★★★★★
I used my NutriBullet to combine the EASY KETO MARINARA SAUCE – LOW CARB recipe. The only ingredient I did not have was the parsley so I ommited it. What a deliciously easy recipe. I used it for your Cheesy Spaghetti Squash Skillet – Keto & Low Carb recipe (another keeper) and it was fantastic! Thank you, thank you for this recipe.
★★★★★
Wow! Just Wow!! I just started doing Keto. Some of the recipes I fail at. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. This was great and the whole family loved it. Thank you so much!!
★★★★★
Hi I just found this recipe and I would like to know where you buy your can of tomatoes? I live in Southern California and have not found any around me. I also have searched online with no luck. Please let me know. Thank u
I just bought them at Stater Brothers. At my store, the San Mariano’s are not displayed with the other canned tomatoes and are a few feet down the aisle from the Hunts and Del Monte. Stater Brothers carries Cento brand in a yellow can.
Unfortunately I didn’t care for this at all. It was bitter. I started with the original recipe and adding extra this and that trying to help it, even included a few packs of stevia, but it just didn’t work for me.
★
Nothing about this recipe should be bitter – it’s likely that either your olive oil is rancid and bitter on its own (easy to test) or the tomatoes you used were of poor quality and bitter to start with. No ingredients added can fix either of those problems.
So…non-bitter red wine vinegar, is that your position? Perhaps something by way of a fruity, sweet. mellifluous vinegar?
I’m super grateful u shared this! We love it sooo much it’s the only way I make sauce now! A BIG no HUGE thank u from our family to yours! Thx again 🌺JoAnn Gomez
★★★★★
This was amazing!! Made it w/ your meatballs and loved loved loved it!!
★★★★★
This sauce was fabulous! I used my favorite Muir Glen organic fire roasted tomatoes and it is so good that I could just eat it with a spoon. This will be my go to sauce from now on. Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Oh my goodness. I thought it was too simple to be that great, but I was in a hurry and made some. I too could drink this sauce. Delicious!!!!
★★★★★
I just made your sauce and I used the specific tomatoes called for in the recipe. This is the best sauce! I increased my garlic and added a little sweetener just because I like my sauces a little on the sweet side. I can’t wait to put some on a low carb pizza crust I will be making later today!! Your recipe says it yields 4 cups but I portioned mine out into 1/2 c servings and I only got 3 cups. I used 1/2 c of the liquid from the can and followed the recipe exactly. Will this increase the net carbs per serving? I’m wondering if the tomatoes I got maybe weren’t packed full of tomatoes like the brand I see mentioned in the comments and maybe that’s why I didn’t get 4 cups when i made it.
★★★★★
Love it about only thing is change is 1\2 teaspoon of garlic powder or less
This sauce is fantastic! I used the rec tomatoes and the flavor is delicious. Thanks so much for posting this fast easy recipe! I used the sauce for chicken parmesan and thinking a zucchini lasagna is in my future 😉!
★★★★★
I will never buy store bought sauce again. Simply delicious!
★★★★★
I have never made my own marinara sauce. Ever. I’m going to be 50 next month. Ever. I am a lazy cook. I just tried this recipe & I can’t stop eating it (this may be a problem) It was sooooo easy & soooo good I will never buy jar sauce again.
Thank you so much!
★★★★★
getting ready to harvest fresh tomatoes from my garden. how many average size tomatoes would you suggest? do I need to add water? alway have good results using your recipes. thanks so much for your contritubutions that are FREE to all of us!! really appreciate your website!!
★★★★★
I’m interested in knowing how to use fresh roma tomatoes as well.
Trying this out with zucchini noodles for the first time (Keto). Husband’s turn in the kitchen. He followed the recipe precisely, added 1 lb ground beef, and somehow we’ve ended up with less than 4 cups of meat sauce when the original marinara recipe yields 4 cups by itself! We are completely baffled. I had entered the recipe in my macro app expecting that, with the addition of meat to the sauce, the total yield to be around 6 cups. I cannot figure out how we ended up adding more and yielding less! We are going to add a little water and hope for the best. It smells amazing!
That IS strange?
Yeah. I only got a yield of 2 cups.
28oz cento san marzano. 1/2 cup liquid. Olive oil.
So I just found your website last week. I have literally spent every day reading over your blog for the twelve week meal plans. I haven’t had a chance to try and recipes yet, as I am still preparing myself mentally for the Keto journey, however I see that all of your recipes have rave reviews!
I really just commented to say how much of a blessing you are to everyone. I haven’t ran across anyone that so willingly makes such awesome meal plans complete with recipes without charging one cent. This is so awesome of you and I just wanted to thank you in advance.
Thanks so much Melissa – you’ve got this!
We love this recipe!! I was careful to read the can of tomatoes ingredients because my store did not have Cento brand. Sure enough, massive carb increase in some of the other brands because there is added sugar. I was relieved to find a brand with no added sugar and the recipe is fantastic. I simmer on the stove with organic chicken basil meatballs. It is a very versatile sauce and if reduced makes a great cauliflower pizza sauce. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
★★★★★
I’ve been looking for a recipe like this. Going to try it tonight. One question though…All of the canned tomatoes that I can find up here in Canada have 2 to 6 grams of sugar, although sugar is not listed as an ingredient. Is this what you mean by “no added sugar” or should be looking for a product with 0 grams of sugar?
As long as sugar isn’t listed in the ingredients then what you are seeing is just natural sugars found in tomatoes – that’s fine, it’s included in the carb totals!
Thanks Melissa!
I have been doing it all wrong. Trying to search for a marinara low in carbs. This sauce is super easy and so flavorful. I actually did an eye roll in the back of my head. Thanks so much. This is pure and beautiful. I can’t now eat meat sauce again 😁
Thanks so much Bekah!
GREAT RECIPE!
I made a batch of this sauce, pretty much following your ingredients as stated. Came out excellent and VERY flavorful. I found the “Cento” brand tomatoes at my local Sprouts market. They are very sweet right out of the can. I am always amazed at why food companies see the need to add sugar and other stuff to something that is already very sweet…
Anyway, I combined your sauce with the Lasagna Meatball recipe, and all I can say is, WOW! It came out soooo good. Love it!
I’ve been doing the keto diet for a week or so now, and feel GREAT. Who would think you can eat foods like this, and be healthy? For me, eliminating the carb-loaded foods has been very easy, thanks to recipes like yours. THANK YOU!
This sauce was just okay for me. My canned tomatoes had no sugar added and the net carb count was about 29, so there is no way this recipe is 3 net Carbs per serving, especially after adding in the carbs from all the spices :( I also agree with the comment about the vinegar- it was way too tangy. I had to add about a teaspoon of erythritol and a pinch of baking soda to counteract it. I didn’t see the comment about draining some of the juice, so it was really water-y. I had to reduce it over the stovetop. I appreciate the recipe and eventually it tasted good, but I am disappointed to learn the true carb counts.
Not sure why your carbs were so high for a can of whole tomatoes – I use Cento brand San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes and it’s 3g per serving. There is far less than 1g additional carbs per serving from the herbs and spices, also it is increased in volume by the olive oil which adds no carbs. I’m confident in my numbers, but that’s based on the brand I used and I can’t speak to what the carb count is in the brand of your tomatoes. You are absolutely increasing the carbs per serving if you simmer it down to thicken it by the way.
YUM! This has a great flavor and wonderful consistency for baking. Totally five stars, thank you!!