Tomato Sauce Substitute

Tomato sauce substitute comes handy in situations when you run out of tomato sauce in your kitchen. Therefore, for such situations, here are some tomato sauce substitute recipes that can be real time savers for last minute needs.

A tomato sauce is one of the most common sauce made primarily out of tomatoes. It is a product prepared by cooking fresh tomatoes down in to a medium thick sauce which is strained to remove seeds and peels. Due to its rich flavor, low liquid content, very soft flesh that breaks down easily, and the right composition to thicken up into a sauce when cooked, tomato serves as the best option for preparing the sauce. The simplest tomato sauce consists of chopped tomato flesh, cooked in a little olive oil, simmered until it loses its raw savor and then flavored with salt.

Tomato sauce serves as a base or an addition to different sauces and soup recipes. It is commonly served as a part of a dish rather than as a condiment or seasoning. Although the sauce goes well with both meat and vegetables, it is best known as sauce for Italian pasta dishes. Tomato sauce is less concentrated than tomato paste and has a thinner consistency than tomato puree. Water or any other flavored liquid like stock or wine is usually added to the sauce to keep it from drying out too much. While cooking tomato sauce puree, onion and garlic are often sweated or sautйed at the beginning before the tomato is added. Other seasonings for tomato sauce include basil, oregano, parsley, spicy red pepper or black pepper and ground or chopped meat. This was just a brief insight about tomato sauce, now let us move on to different tomato sauce substitutes.

Substitutes for Tomato Sauce

Substitute #1: Tomato paste serves as the easiest tomato sauce substitute. To substitute tomato paste for one cup tomato sauce, mix ѕ cup tomato paste with 1 cup water and then season with salt, if needed.

Substitute #2: Besides this, one can substitute canned tomatoes for tomato sauce by blending 1 cup canned, stewed tomatoes with water until it reaches a smooth consistency.

Substitute #3: Likewise, one can also substitute tomato juice in place of tomato sauce. For Ѕ cup tomato sauce and Ѕ cup water, 1 cup tomato juice plus dash of salt and sugar can be used.

Substitute #4: To substitute tomato sauce, another option which comes extremely handy is tomato puree. For Ѕ cup tomato sauce and Ѕ cup water, 1 cup tomato puree plus dash of salt and sugar can be used.

Substitute #5: Another readily available tomato sauce substitute is tomato ketchup. For ѕ cup tomato sauce and 1 cup water, 2 cups of tomato ketchup can be used.

Substitute #6: Although not so commonly used, tomato soup also serves as a great tomato sauce substitute. In fact, 1 (10 - ѕ oz) can tomato soup can substitute 1 cup tomato sauce plus ј cup water.

While using these substitutes be careful about the consistency. This is because ketchup, tomato puree or juice and fresh tomatoes have more liquid than tomato paste, hence one should reduce the liquid in the recipes that require thicker concentration. For example, if you mix 1 tsp of tomato paste with 1 cup of water, you get something that has nearly same consistency as canned tomato sauce. So you should use canned tomato sauce in your recipe instead of 1 cup of liquid and 1 tsp of paste.

If you like, you can also read on:

Tomato Sauce from Scratch

Italian Tomato Sauce from Scratch

Tomato Sauce for Pasta

The aforementioned tomato sauce substitutes are not only easy to prepare but they offer same flavor and texture to the food items. So days when you are out of tomato sauce, prepare or grab any of these substitutes, use in your recipes and enjoy with your loved ones.