If you want to complete your recipe, canned tomatoes are simply your best bet. Crushed tomatoes have many things they are useful for ranging from homemade lasagna to salsa dishes and any other thing. We are curious about how you use your crushed tomatoes, how you usually get them mixed up in your kitchen.
You can use your crushed tomatoes to be the base for a sauce that needs tomato sauce. Even though we often try to have crushed tomatoes available for us but it usually doesn’t happen that way. In case you need crushed tomatoes and you don’t have any available, you might need to replace it with some other things. The question is what the best alternative for crushed tomatoes is.
The best way to replace your canned crushed tomatoes is by crushing the fresh tomatoes yourself but you have several options at your disposal. The options include canned tomato sauce, paste, or when the two are combined depending on your recipe.
What we want to check out in this article is to discuss crushed tomatoes where you will get to know the best replacements for your crushed tomatoes. You will certainly know how to make your crushed tomatoes in case of an emergency after you have gone through this article. You are encouraged to continue reading to get all that we have in place for you.
A Guide to The Best Substitute for Crushed Tomatoes
You may be the type of person that does not like messing with mixing, cutting, crushing, or dicing fresh tomatoes. The option you have is to get for yourself some canned crushed tomatoes. Typically, Roma tomatoes that have been firstly peeled and then seeded are used to make crushed tomatoes. The mixture will then get its full texture when the tomatoes get crushed and then mixed in the tomato puree.
The mixture will be a perfectly smooth and coarse combination for several sauces and variations of recipe thanks to the addition of the tomato paste. It is possible to make your crushed tomatoes yourself if you are trying to preserve or use tomatoes you have grown at home. This is a simple thing to do, the same way as what we have described above. There is nothing more aside adding a little salt to help to preserve it.
The crushed tomatoes can then be canned and stored inside the pantry against any time you need it. Usually, crushed tomatoes will work best for you when you want to use this mixture to make something but you may also use the other options.
Using Crushed Tomatoes
You can use crushed tomatoes for various things. People use them for tomato-based homemade salsas or sauces and so many other things. As long as you need tomatoes in that recipe, you can use your crushed tomatoes. You can only have an exception when what you need specifically are sliced tomatoes. Check below for some of the ways you can use your crushed tomatoes:
- Any kind of red pasta sauce
- Braised leg of a lamb
- Spaghetti sauce
- Chicken Parmigiana
- Meatball dishes
- Marinara sauce
- Meat sauce
- Masala
- Salsa
- Chili
- Tomato soup
- Lasagna
- Ravioli
- Pizza sauce
These are just some of the popular options, the list is endless, you can use your crushed tomatoes for a lot of things.
Substituting Crushed Tomatoes – The 5 (Five) Best Options
It is quite easy when you want to use crushed tomatoes but it is not always easy to have them available when they are needed. Even your local store may not have it in abundance when you need them. The lucky thing is that you have a lot of alternatives you can use to substitute crushed tomatoes. The best way by far is to try to make or prepare your crushed tomatoes. They can be made from scratch and you may also combine other products of tomato to get a similar product.
It is an effective and very simple solution and it is our favorite. In case you are not sure you want to make the crushed tomatoes yourself, then you will need to use several other tricks. What you need to know is that you can make your crushed tomatoes in a variety of ways. What we will now consider are the various ways the substitute options can be made. You may also use some other tomato (canned) products to get your crushed tomatoes.
- Pizza or Spaghetti Sauce
You can use some other tomato-based sauce to replace crushed tomatoes. However, your flavor will most likely vary because the sauces are usually seasoned. If you want to make a pizza or red pasta sauce, these sauces will work well.
When you are using it to make things that you need crushed tomatoes for, try to adjust the seasonings. This will get it to incorporate with the seasonings contained in the pre-made sauces. You may add a bit of tomato paste for some thickness. It is not a perfect solution, however, it will go a long way.
- Tomato Sauce + Tomato Paste
Tomato sauce can be used as the perfect replacement for crushed tomatoes but the consistency is not quite right. You, however, may make it work depending on the recipe you are making. Meanwhile, you are recommended to mix the tomato sauce with tomato paste if you wish to turn it into a more convincing replacement.
The sauce will be thickened by the tomato paste, giving you the right texture. This is not a smooth solution but it will work as an excellent substitute if you have them available.
- Diced Tomatoes
This is also a homemade substitute, perhaps, you may also purchase canned diced tomatoes. Diced tomatoes have a close relationship with the other substitutes we have shared. All you need to do is to either slightly puree them in your food processer or use a blender to blend them. Remember not to turn the diced tomatoes into a tomato sauce.
Tomato puree or tomato paste can be added to get the consistency and flavor almost like that of crushed tomatoes, at the end of the day, a mixture of tomato paste and tomato is used to make crushed tomatoes.
- Tomato Paste
You all know tomato paste, right? It is thick and quite nice. It is thicker than the typical expectation of your crushed tomatoes but it will make a great substitute. Crushed tomatoes are not as thick as tomato paste, you need to know a few things before you use tomato paste as a substitute.
The best thing is to add some fresh tomatoes to it or perhaps, some diced tomatoes and then blend them all. In case you don’t have the opportunity to do this, add a little quantity of water for the consistency to slightly thin out. You should also know that much tomato paste will not be needed up to how crushed tomatoes will be used unless the tomato paste is combined with some other substances to make a more distinct thickness.
- Fresh Tomatoes
Fresh tomatoes are usually used to make crushed tomatoes and that makes fresh tomatoes a great substitute for crushed tomatoes. All you need to do is to dice your fresh tomatoes and put them inside a blender or food processor. You should not blend them fully because they will turn to a sauce, however, you can go a bit close.
You may season it if you love to have cilantro or salt bit this is not compulsory until when you want to make the sauce or any other thing you want to use them for. Add a little quantity of tomato paste if you want your crushed tomatoes to be perfect. This will give you your needed overall texture as well as the expected outcome.
Crushed Tomato Substitutes: Conclusion
One of those items inside the pantry that you will easily see a replacement for is crushed tomatoes. You have a lot of options to work with irrespective of if you don’t have it available or if you mistakenly picked the wrong thing when you are purchasing it. Any other type of tomato products can be turned into your crushed tomatoes as long as you try it.
Related Questions
What’s the Difference in Crushed Tomatoes and Tomato Sauce?
Crushed tomatoes come directly from your whole tomatoes without any process of cooking required or involved while the tomatoes used in tomato sauce are usually cooked to make a concentrated and thick sauce. It is then strained for all of the seeds or chunks to be separated.
If I Use Whole Tomatoes, Should I Boil Them First?
You don’t have to necessarily boil your tomatoes first but it is not out of place to do so. If you will not like the seeds or skins to be part of the crushed tomatoes, boil them just for 20 to 30 seconds so that the skins will easily peel off. The process is quite optional and it is all about your preferences.
