Tomato Paste Substitutes

Tomato paste is a pantry staple for most of us. And you know what happens with those ingredients that get used often? We run out of them, eventually. No need to beat yourself up, though. Chances are, you already have one of these tomato paste substitutes!

This reduced form of tomato sauce is an essential ingredient for whipping up various recipes. You can use it to thicken, color, or enrich many semi-liquid elements.

There are many tomato-based substitutes if you suddenly run out of tomato paste. Some of these are tomato sauces, marinara, ketchup, and even fresh tomatoes.

We’ll show you how to use these substitutes and also how to make your own tomato paste at home.

Make sure to print out the Egg Substitution Printable {FREEBIE}, Whole Plant Substitutions Printable {FREEBIE}, Cooking and Baking Ingredient Substitution Printables {FREEBIE} for your Recipe Binder!

🍅What Is Tomato Paste?

Tomato paste is basically just a concentrated tomato sauce. Cooking tomatoes without the seeds and skin with some lemon juice will eventually give you tomato paste.

Alternatively, you can buy tomato paste from any grocery store. There are also double and triple concentrated pastes which give even more flavor with smaller amounts.

Tomato paste has a strong, acid-like sweet smell that’s also apparent when you taste it.

Be careful not to add excessive amounts of tomato paste in your recipe to avoid ending up with an extra sweet or acidic flavor.

The acidic flavor comes from citric acid used to stabilize the paste while manufacturing.

📌Overview Of Tomato Paste Substitutes

Substitute	Ratio	Notes
Tomato Sauce	2-3:1	Simmer the sauce to thicken it and use a 1:1 ratio for recipes that require a large quantity of tomato paste.
Ketchup	1/2-1:1	Start with a 1/2:1 ratio and add more if needed.
Marinara Sauce	3:1	–
Fresh Tomatoes	3:1	Must be pureed first.
Canned Tomatoes	2:1	Strain the liquid and simmer the tomatoes, then puree them. Optionally, add a dash of sugar.
Tomato Soup	1:1	Doesn’t work for recipes with a lot of wet ingredients.
Homemade Tomato Paste	1:1	–

🔗7 Best Tomato Paste Substitutes

If you ever had a meal with the taste or the scent of tomato, chances are that the meal contained some tomato paste. It’s one of the most common food ingredients out there.

But what if that common ingredient suddenly became uncommon? That pesky paste container always fakes being half-full, only for you to discover that there’s nothing there.

So, is there a tomato paste substitute?

Tomato Sauce

Tomato sauce is one of the most straightforward products than can substitute for tomato paste. Most households have a can or two in stock most of the time.

Tomato sauce tastes similar to tomato paste, but it feels less diluted. You’ll need to use 2 or sometimes 3 times the amount of tomato paste to get the flavor.

This will yield excessive liquid, and you don’t want that in your recipe. So, keep the tomato sauce in a dish for 10–20 minutes, then pour out the excess liquid.

Tomato sauce is best used with recipes that don’t require large amounts of tomato paste. An example of such a recipe is slow-cooked Moroccan chicken.

If your recipe requires more significant amounts of tomato paste, you’ll need to simmer the sauce and thicken it before adding it to the mix.

Ketchup

Ketchup is one of the quickest tomato paste substitutes. Ketchup gives you three advantages over other items on our list.

First, its consistency is pretty similar to tomato paste. Unlike tomato sauce, ketchup’s thickness is close to tomato paste, so you won’t need to change it.

Second, the vinegar in the ketchup gives an extra punch to the taste similar to that of citric acid, one that will enhance the experience even more than tomato paste sometimes.

Third, ketchup is accessible everywhere. It’s pretty difficult to find yourself unable to find ketchup.

Keep in mind that ketchup is considerably sweeter than tomato paste. Always keep tasting your mix to avoid adding too much. The combination of the sweet and vinegar taste could overwhelm your recipe.

Start by adding ½ or ⅔ ketchup to your recipe as a substitute for tomato paste. If the flavor isn’t as strong as you need, you may use a 1:1 ratio.

Marinara Sauce

Marinara sauce is another alternative that can give you a taste similar to tomato paste for a slightly thinner mixture.

Unfortunately, marinara sauce can’t substitute tomato paste in every recipe, especially if there are a lot of other ingredients. They will hide the taste of the marinara sauce.

To substitute for tomato paste, use marinara sauce at a ratio of 3:1.

Fresh Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the origin of tomato paste, so it makes sense that we can use fresh tomatoes as a substitute.

Keep in mind that we’re not cooking tomato paste; we’re just using fresh tomatoes as a substitute (spoiler, we’ll show you how to cook the paste too!)

For now, though, we’ll just use fresh tomatoes. So first, puree your tomatoes until they liquify, then substitute every teaspoon of tomato paste with 3 teaspoons of fresh tomatoes.

The resulting sauce/paste will lack the sweetness of tomato paste and some of its consistency. You may add a bit of ketchup to the mix to make up for that.

Again, don’t add too much ketchup to avoid that vinegar punch.

Canned Tomatoes

This might not seem like a suitable substitute, especially with the watery consistency.

You’ll need to start by pouring out as much of the juice as possible. Then cook the tomatoes and process or blend them until you reach a paste-like consistency.

Depending on the brand of the canned tomatoes you have, you may or may not find the sweetness of the tomato paste.

Adding a dash of sugar will help you get back some of that sweetness.

As for the ratio, use 2 tablespoons of canned tomatoes per 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.

Tomato Soup

Tomato soup has a very similar sweet taste to tomato paste. Sometimes, it’s even sweeter.

Still, we recommend keeping tomato soup as a last resort. Despite having a similar taste, tomato soup’s liquid consistency makes it difficult to use as a tomato paste substitute. 

So, you should only use tomato soup when you don’t require large amounts of tomato paste. If your recipe needs a lot, then tomato soup will make it very runny.

Additionally, should you use any tomato soup, try to reduce the quantity of other liquid ingredients in the recipe.

Home-Made Tomato Paste

If you prefer to make your own tomato paste or just can’t reach a grocery store at the moment, you can use simple ingredients to prepare a home-made tomato paste.

You can use any type of tomato to make a homemade tomato paste. However, Roma tomatoes are our prime choice because they give you that hint of sweetness that you find in tomato paste.

 Here’s What You’ll Need:

• 10 pounds of tomatoes (preferably Roma tomatoes)
• 2 teaspoons of sea salt
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice

Here’s How to Make Your Own Tomato Paste at Home:

1. Start by pre-heating your oven to 350°F and dividing it into 3-thirds using 2 racks.
2. Chop down your tomatoes into 4 quarters each.
3. Use medium/high heat to simmer the tomatoes with olive oil. Simmering is when you heat your liquid food just below the boiling point.
4. Use a food mill or a sieve to filter the tomato seeds and skins. Then, add your sea salt and lemon juice into the mix.
5. Keep simmering the tomatoes until they start to thicken, then let them cool down for a few minutes.
6. Spread the tomatoes over 2 baking sheets and place them inside your pre-heated oven.
7. Leave the sheets in the oven and check them every 30 minutes. You’ll notice that the paste’s size is reducing.
8. Once the paste no longer touches the baking sheet’s walls, take both sheets out and combine the paste into one sheet. After that, place it back in the oven.
9. Keep the paste inside the oven until its size shrinks to half. It should give you a shiny, brick-like color. This process takes anywhere between 3–4 hours.
10. Take the paste out of the oven and divide it equally into 4 jars. 

Let your paste cool down, and it should be ready to use.

If you’re intending to store your paste, leave a 3-inch space between the top layer of the paste and the lid. 

Once you do that, put the jars into a boiling water path. The heat will expand the paste inside the jars, so don’t forget to leave some space in the jar.

⛔When To Not Use Tomato Paste Substitutes

It’s always good to have backups, but sometimes you simply can’t finish a few recipes without actual tomato paste.

Sometimes you actually need that paste consistency alternatives like tomato soup and marinara sauce can’t provide. They’re just too watery.

Basically, if tomato sauce is the core ingredient for a particular recipe, say to make barbeque sauce, then all the items on our list, except for ketchup, will mess up the consistency.

If you’re cooking such recipes, it’s best not to substitute tomato paste.

🍳Favorite Recipes With Tomato Paste

Oven Roasted Portobello Mushroom Pizza – The homemade pizza sauce used for this low-carb pizza alternative includes both tomato paste and tomato sauce for a rich flavor.

Being such a versatile sauce, it also works great for regular pizza and pasta dishes.

Instant Pot Fettucine Bolognese – The Instant Pot sure makes bolognese super easy! The amazing bolognese sauce has both stewed tomatoes and tomato paste to deliver authentic flavors.

Bolognese sauce needs to simmer on the stovetop for hours. Thanks to the Instant Pot’s pressure cooking function, your pasta can be ready in 8 minutes!

Instant Pot Spanish Rice – Don’t feel intimidated by the large number of ingredients in this recipe. This is a “dump and go” type of meal that’s ready in 30 and feeds a crowd!

Air Fryer Mozzarella Sticks – When you’re craving fried food, the Air Fryer is a wonderful tool to get your tasty treat while keeping the fat down.

Mozzarella sticks are incredibly easy to make and they sure go well with our homemade marinara sauce. Of course, tomato paste is one of the star ingredients in this yummy sauce!

Instant Pot Tomato Florentine Soup – This tomato soup is practically effortless, just what you’d need on a busy weekday.

Stewed tomatoes and tomato paste are cooked with veggies, herbs, seasonings, chicken stock, and heavy cream for a comforting and warming meal your family will love.

All of your substitutes needs all in one handy reference spot! Comprehensive list substitutes here or to print off for your own menu binder. You to find an ingredient option that will allow you to not run out to the store or you may find a flavor combination you love even better than the original. Garlic Powder Substitute, Cojita Cheese Substitute, Parsley Substitute, Green Chilis Substitute, Italian Seasoning Substitute, Mustard Seed Substitute, Cilantro Substitute, Sriracha Substitute, White Pepper Substitute, Onion Powder Substitute, Five Spice Substitute, Turmeric Substitutes, White Wine Vinegar, Cardamon Substitute, Parsley Substitute, Cremini Mushroom Substitute, Egg Yolk, Leeks, Egg Wash, Coconut Cream, Tomato, Stewed Tomatoes, Coconut Sugar, Palm Sugar, Hoisin, Adobo, Chili Sauce, Oyster Sauce, Escarole, Watercress, Rice Wine Vinegar, Ketchup, Tomato Puree, Tomato Paste, Lemongrass, Chervil, Cheesecloth, Worcestershire Sauce, Fennel, Dark Soy Sauce.

🍴Wrap Up

That was our list of 7 tomato paste substitutes that can help you finish your recipe if tomato paste isn’t available.

Tomato-based sauces differ mainly in the consistency of the liquid, so it can be a little tricky to mimic the texture of tomato paste.

Sometimes you’ll either need to pour out the excess liquid like in tomato sauces or increase the ratio like for marinara.