Cardamom and Tea

Things I love about this roasted tomato sauce recipe:

1) No clean-up! There’s no food processor or blender of any kind. You won’t even need to wash the pan. I mean, you will end up with 1 fork and 1 paring knife to wash. But this recipe won’t contribute to the dinner dishes pile-up.

2) You can use any tomato to make it. I’ve got instructions for any size/shape of tomato.

3) There’s no chopping or ingredient prep work. I’ve kept it super simple. The recipe uses garlic powder (although you can also use fresh if that’s what you have). You can also use dried basil, or tear some fresh basil right over the serving dish. And simply slice the tomatoes in half before roasting.

4) It’s really easy. Not much more to say about it than that!

Jump to the recipe if you’re ready to cook, or read on for some useful tips and ideas.

Ways to serve roasted tomato sauce

Here are some ideas!

Over pasta + meatballs (use ground chicken, turkey, or vegan meat substitute if you’d like)
In a cheesy meatball bake (I have a recipe in Piecemeal, but it’s not rocket science!)
As a sandwich spread (especially anything with mozzarella, or in place of the tomato in a BLT)
Spread over an everything bagel that’s already topped with cream cheese
In a grain bowl
…with anything you’d use a regular tomato sauce for!

Why does this recipe work?

There are a few things that make this recipe special, and here is why these features work so well:

Cut-side-up, un-hulled

Placing the tomato halves cut-side-up means that they will turn into little bowls as they roast. Since you didn’t hull them, their juices will stay in those tomato-bowls (while running off just a little bit). And as those juices sit there, their moisture will cook off. This gives them the perfect texture and a super concentrated tomato flavor.

Fork instead of blender

While a blender works great for a smoother tomato sauce, a fork actually works best for this recipe. With these beautifully caramelized tomatoes, there are going to be some perfectly-charred bits, as well as some overly-charred bits. As you mash everything with the back of a fork, you’ll start to notice some overly-charred skins that won’t break down. That’s when you just lift them out with your fork and discard them. This leaves behind the perfect amount of char, for a roasted tomato flavor without too much toasty flavor.

It would actually be a really bad idea to just throw this in a blender and let it go, because you’d wind up blending too much char into the mix. With a fork, you can control how much charred skin you let in and how much you discard.

And besides, this roasting technique yields the perfect texture for mashing. You really don’t need a blender to end up with something pretty darn smooth, with just a bit of texture.

roasted tomato sauce (no dishes)

Print Recipe

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Author: Kathryn Pauline
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: (see recipe)
Total Time: (see recipe)
Yield: 1 1/4 cup tomato sauce

Ingredients

2 lb [905g] tomatoes*
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
garlic powder (or fresh garlic**)
salt
basil (fresh or dried—both optional)

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C]. Line a sheet pan with foil and then parchment.
Carefully pull any vines or stems oﬀ your tomatoes, but do not hull them. Slice the tomatoes in half across their equators. Place the tomatoes so they are all cut-side up on the sheet pan.
Drizzle with olive oil and evenly sprinkle with the garlic powder and salt (to taste). Move them so they are evenly spaced out, still cut-side-up.
Roast for about 1 to 2 1/2 hours (longer for larger tomatoes, shorter for smaller ones). If your oven has a tight seal, open the door a few times while they cook to let the steam escape. The key is not how long they roast, but how they look: they will shrink down significantly, and they should be syrupy, not dry, and caramelized in spots around their edges.
Once they’re done, use a fork to lift away any burnt bits of tomato goo that have caramelized around them. Discard. If you were not able to remove some bits of stem, remove them now.
Mash them right in the pan using the back of a fork. If you notice any burnt skins that are not breaking up, simply lift them out and discard them.
Tear fresh basil and use it to garnish the dish you’re serving this tomato sauce with, or stir dried basil into the sauce (add basil to taste).

Notes

*You can use any kind of tomato for this. The recipe gives a wide range of times (shorter for small tomatoes, longer for large ones). If you want to double the recipe, use 2 sheet pans.

** If using fresh garlic, crush with a garlic press, and top each tomato with a little bit (to taste). Slightly rub the garlic into the tomato to make sure it’s not just sitting on top (or it will burn)

Video note: You can find the video in the introduction to this blog post. If you don’t see it after scrolling up, please disable ad block and reload the page.

This protein oatmeal is made with 3 basic ingredients you probably have in your kitchen right now: oats, eggs, and milk (or vegan alternatives). No protein powder, no blender, no specialty items necessary.

I’ve added protein to my usual oatmeal recipe in the following two ways:

I use more milk as the liquid (less water)
I whisk in eggs at the end

The result? Oatmeal that’s smooth, custardy, and far tastier than anything spiked with protein powder. It’s easy, it’s cozy, and you probably already have everything you need to make it.

Jump to the recipe + video if you’re on board. Or read on if you want to know more. I get into why protein powder doesn’t work so well, why you should use eggs, why I add so much liquid to my recipe (and an assurance that I have not lost my mind), and a note on vegan alternatives.

Also check out my recipe for protein baked oatmeal if you want something even easier.

oatmeal with strawberries in mugs in a picnic table, with 2 mugs of coffee, a pourover coffee maker, and a gingham-lidded jar

Why I don’t like using protein powder in my protein oatmeal

I’m not here to stop you from putting protein powder in your oatmeal. If you like it, go forth and sprinkle that vanilla-flavored whey to your heart’s content. But in my kitchen? We are Team Egg for sure.

Why? Because protein powder is like that early-bird friend who is kind of a mess if they have to stay up after 9PM. Let me explain:

Protein powder shines in cold applications (like smoothies, overnight oats, and “nice cream”). But the moment you pass a certain temperature, it turns a little sulky. It gets tired. It wants to go home. The texture gets stodgy, the flavor gets weird, and your cozy bowl of oats starts to taste like chalk.

Now, I am not the protein powder police. You can heat it and stir it into your stovetop oats. But just because you can does not mean you should.

That’s why I save my protein powder for cold applications, where it thrives. Like, in overnight oats, it’s basically the hero that saves you from squelchy sludge and delivers pudding-level creaminess.

But for warm oatmeal? I’d rather use something that can handle the heat—like eggs!

Why eggs work great in protein oatmeal

Eggs are phenomenal in protein oatmeal for a few reasons:

1. They’re a protein source you probably already have in your kitchen!

Need I say more? Sure, you could whip out a block of silken tofu or do something avant-garde with protein powder foam. But eggs? They’re always there for you. Even after you’ve been traveling for a week and return to a poorly-stocked kitchen.

I asked Caroline Weeks, PA-C, RDN, about her take on eggs as a way of adding protein to oats, and she said, “Eggs are a refrigerator staple I most recommend to my patients because not only are they generally affordable (hello 2025), but they are a nutrition powerhouse. One egg contains 6 grams of high quality protein with only 70 calories and contains all nine essential amino acids important for building and repairing muscle while also supporting bone health. I also recommend eggs because they are one of the highest food sources of choline, a nutrient important for brain health and cognitive performance which about 90% of Americans do not get enough of.”

2. They turn your oats into a custard.

I mean… custard for breakfast? Absolutely delicious. If you like flan, crème anglaise, egg tarts—basically, anything eggy and sweet—you’re going to like eggs in your oatmeal.

No, it’s not exactly flan itself. But it has the same custard-like quality in both flavor and texture, especially if you top it with something sweet. My favorite is cold strawberry compote.

3. They play well with both sweet and savory.

The nice thing about eggs (instead of, like, vanilla soy isolate) is that they taste truly neutral. Eggy oatmeal is great topped with maple syrup and berries, sure. But it’s just as delicious topped with buttery corn, scallions, and bits of crispy bacon. It could really go either way!

4. They’re traditional

This isn’t a Tiktok food hack or blender experiment. It’s got roots.

I live in Hong Kong, where you’ll find cha chaan tengs all over the city. Cha chaan tengs serve down-to-earth Hong Kong style breakfast items like milk tea, egg sandwiches, pineapple buns with butter, and my favorite: super creamy oatmeal.

Sometimes you’ll even find an option to have oatmeal with egg whites added (蛋花麥皮*). This egg oat porridge recipe looks a lot like the ones I’ve enjoyed here—cozy, custardy, and deeply comforting.

And that’s what inspired this recipe. Eggs (whether whole or whites) in porridge are just plain delicious. You should give it a try if you haven’t already!

*Shout out to my friend Harry for helping give the right context for oatmeal in Hong Kong!

A note on liquid:oat ratios (I promise I have not lost my mind)

When you see the recipe below, you’re going to think I have lost my mind because of the ratios of liquid to oats. But here’s a very important oatmeal PSA: We’re all not adding enough liquid to our oats!

I have a whole post about it where I share my classic oatmeal recipe. But don’t take it from me—52 reviewers have given it 4.9/5⭐️ (as of 12 June 2025). Commenters have said things like:

“Thank you so much for making it possible to love oatmeal again 💕”
“Simply the best oatmeal I’ve ever had in my life I kid you not… 1000/10 I don’t even leave reviews but I had to yet yall know”
“You’ve changed the game. Ever since I got pregnant with my son in 2019, I haven’t been able to stomach oatmeal (because of the texture and gloopiness), but THIS, this right here changed me. I’ve had this every morning for the past week.”
“At 61 I’ve finally made a delicious bowl of oatmeal. Normally I’d have thrown out more than half, today I wished I made more. Thanks for sharing, the key is twice the amount of liquid. So excited, can’t wait till tomorrow.”

So if you want your oatmeal to be creamy instead of “gluggy” (as one commenter calls the standard fare), you’re going to want to stick to the recipe below. And if you want to know more or you’re not quite convinced, feel free to check out the original post for a whole explanation.

Vegan alternatives

You can absolutely use vegan alternatives in this recipe.

Milk substitutes: Feel free to use soy milk (or another vegan milk of choice). If you’re trying to increase the protein content, choose a vegan milk that’s high in protein.

Egg substitutes: For the eggs, I do not recommend substituting homemade flax eggs. Instead, use a store-bought vegan egg substitute that’s been designed to be used 1-for-1 with conventional eggs (or find another oatmeal recipe that deliberately incorporates flax. I’ve heard good things about this one!).

Disclaimer: This recipe is shared for informational and culinary purposes only and does not constitute professional dietary advice.