Do you like tomato puree? Here are 5 great substitutes for tomato puree you can use for your recipe.
Tomato puree is a thick sauce made out of slightly cooked and pureed tomatoes. It almost always has been strained to keep away seeds, skins and other unwanted bits, and it’s commonly sold unseasoned, but this is not always the case.
Plenty of recipes call for tomato puree, which is why it’s a good idea to have some readily available. However, that’s not always possible, which means that learning how to make it yourself and how to substitute it is one of the smartest things you can do if you find yourself frequently using tomato products for your recipes.
More...
Substitute For Tomato Puree: 5 Great Replacements
Here we’ll share a short list of tomato puree substitutes that you can use:
1. Tomato Paste
Tomato paste works as a good substitute for tomato purees if you don’t care much about the texture and are interested only in the taste.
Keep in mind that tomato puree is concentrated and often comes in large volumes, while tomato paste comes in much smaller packages, so you want to mix it with some blended tomatoes to come up with something similar in both taste and texture.
Don’t add any spices or seasonings.
You can also mix tomato paste with plain water, to thin both the texture and the flavor.
If you’re doing this, use the following formula:
For each cup of tomato puree, mix 1/3 of a cup of tomato paste with 3/4 of a cup of plain water.
The goal is to get 1 whole cup of water, tomato paste mixture.
Use it with a 1:1 proportion in any recipe you’re cooking.
Here is a easy recipe to make your own tomato paste at home:
2. Canned Tomatoes
Canned tomatoes are another good substitute for tomato puree and they’re also one of the most practical ones.
To used canned tomatoes, all you need to do is blend them, excess liquids and all.
Don’t add any seasonings or spices other than salt. Remember that tomato puree is often unseasoned.
If the texture doesn’t quite matches what you’re looking for go ahead and simmer your canned tomatoes for a little while so that they thicken a bit. Remember not to cook them too much.
3. Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce can also work as a substitute in a jiffy, but there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind.
Many types of tomato sauce are already seasoned and spiced, which can be a problem since tomato puree is supposed to be plain.
Furthermore, tomato sauce is thicker than tomato puree.
What you want to do in this case is try to find plain tomato sauce or at least a tomato sauce that doesn’t clash with the other ingredients in the recipe.
You could also use tomato sauce and reduce the amount of seasonings in the recipe to keep the spices from overshadowing the other ingredients. Check this recipe for more information.
See below video for how to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes:
4. Fresh Tomatoes
Fresh tomatoes can also be used to substitute tomato puree, considering they’re one of the two ingredients found in the puree.
All you need to do is throw some tomatoes into your blender (top 5 best blenders) and blend them until they’re pureed. You can also use a food processor instead.
Add a dash of salt and you should be good to go.
Alternatively, you could add a bit of tomato paste for flavor, but only if you feel your mix doesn’t quite tastes as you want.
If the texture isn’t what you were expecting, then go ahead and simmer them on a saucepan for a few minutes so that your blend thickens.
Alternatively, you can dice and cook your tomatoes until they start going soft and then blend them / process them.
5. Ketchup
Not the best replacement for tomato puree by any means, but one that can get you out of trouble if your recipe calls for a very small quantity of tomato puree.
Remember tomato puree is supposed to be unseasoned and ketchup has plenty of herbs and spices in there to give it its characteristic flavor, so it’s not a recommended replacement if you’re cooking something big.
If all you need is a dash of tomato puree however, ketchup will do just fine… as long as you don’t mind a slightly altered flavor.
I'd like to share with you a quick and easy recipe to make tomato ketchup at home:
Conclusion
As you can see, tomato puree can be a little challenging to substitute because it’s supposed to be unseasoned and plenty of the readily available tomato based products in our kitchens have spices and seasonings that gives them their peculiar taste.
However, substituting tomato puree isn’t impossible and this short list has proved that!
Next time you run out of tomato puree use one of our substitutes and come back to let us know how it went.
Thank you for reading, we hope you found this article useful and informative. You might also enjoy reading Marinara vs. Pizza Sauce.
Also, check out this tomato corer and food strainer in case you want to make your own tomato puree, paste or sauce.