If You Run Out Of Tomato Paste, Here Are The Best Substitutes To Use

Tomato paste is one of the ultimate pantry staples, and every chef worth their salt knows how vital the ingredient can be. Made by cooking down tomatoes into a thick, rich pulp, tomato paste has a deep taste with a concentrated hit of umami that perks up pretty much any dish and gives your meals additional flavor. One of the best things about tomato paste is how versatile it is. As a stock ingredient, it can be used in anything from pasta sauces to chilis — and its consistency can also help to thicken up dishes. We don't know if you can tell, but we're a big fan of this paste!

As one of the most reliable ingredients around, however, it's easy to assume that it'll always be there. And sometimes, it just ain't. The perennial pantry item can run low when you least expect it, and if you're mid-way through a meal, what do you do? How do you achieve the taste you're craving without having to make a last-minute dash to the supermarket? Don't worry, folks. As it turns out, there's a wide variety of ingredients that can be used in place of tomato paste, and we've got them all right here.

Wait, don't leave. We can explain. While you might think that the processed flavors of ketchup are a pretty poor substitute for tomato paste, we're here to tell you that actually, the opposite is true. Ketchup has a concentrated tomato flavor, just like tomato paste — because, like, it technically is tomato paste, just with some additional elements, right? And it also has a similar level of thickness, meaning that it won't make the meal you're cooking too runny, as The Stonesoup explains.

Crucially, though, ketchup isn't just tomatoes, and often has an especially sharp taste thanks to the inclusion of vinegar and other additives. As such, make sure you're accounting for it elsewhere by reducing other acidic elements in your meal. Ketchup can also have a high level of sugar, which will not only add sweetness to your meal but may also raise its sugar content significantly. If you're trying to keep sugar consumption low, it may be worth trying to use another substitute for tomato paste that doesn't have added sugar, looking for a low-sugar ketchup, or else reducing your sugar consumption in other areas.

When your tomato paste is running low, another tomato-based product is usually going to be the next best thing. And tomato sauce could be one of the closests options. While tomato sauce and tomato paste may look similar at first glance, they have a key difference: Their concentration levels. Both products are cooked and processed tomatoes, but while tomato paste has been cooked thoroughly until it's just a thick mash, tomato sauce is only partly cooked, and blended until smooth.

As a result, their flavors are different, with tomato sauce having a less intense tomato flavor, but more astringency. Given that tomato sauce is less concentrated, it'll also add more moisture to your meal, so it may be worth cooking it a little longer than if you were using tomato paste to keep things dry. Importantly, too, while the name "tomato sauce" may imply that it's a pre-prepared marinara that you can throw onto pizzas, cans of tomato sauce usually don't have any seasoning added to them, so make sure you account for this when you're cooking your meal, and season accordingly.

Now, look. We're under no illusions that red peppers and tomatoes are the same food, y'all. But as it turns out, red pepper purée can be an impressive substitute for the flavor tomato paste imparts, particularly in meals that don't require the taste of tomatoes to be central. You can generally sub-in red pepper purée at an equal ratio to tomato paste, and the new ingredient will give your meal a similar intensity, with a slightly different flavor profile, as Pure Wow states.

By adding red pepper purée, you may get an increased brightness that you wouldn't get from tomato paste, thanks to red peppers being naturally sweet, despite not containing much natural sugar at all (per MasterClass). You may also get an immune-boosting hit of vitamin C, which is abundant in the fruit. If making your own red pepper purée, roasting the red peppers beforehand will amp up their umami levels, as No Recipes explains. This process, which also makes them even sweeter, can be a great idea if you're using it to replace tomato paste, as umami is one of the central flavors of tomatoes, and is partly what gives the paste its deep savory flavor.

A staple of sub sandwiches and spaghetti suppers, most people usually have a jar of marinara sauce somewhere in their pantry. And if you have some that's nearing its sell-by date, throwing it into your meal instead of tomato paste can be a great choice.

One of the key bonuses of using marinara sauce in place of tomato paste is that it comes with classic Italian seasonings already added, so you won't have as much work on your hands. Remember, though, that this may not always be a good thing: Some marinara sauces come pre-loaded with salt, with certain brands containing 680 milligrams in a half-cup serving, well over a quarter of the recommended daily allowance for adults, according to the USDA. Because it's a thinner consistency, though, it's not a like-for-like swap with tomato paste, so you'll need to adjust your ratios accordingly. Ideally, you should use roughly three times the amount of marinara sauce that you would tomato paste, to achieve the same intensity of flavor. It could also be worth adjusting your cooking time a little, too, as marinara sauce is much thinner than tomato paste, so you may want to cook it for slightly longer to reduce the moisture levels.

Sometimes, substituting tomato paste for another ingredient can make food even more interesting and exciting. And we think this is totally what happens when you use harissa paste instead of tomatoes. Made primarily of pureed red chilis, spices and seasonings, and oil, harissa paste imbues meals with a complex balance of heat and sweetness. Usefully, the look of harissa paste is also very similar to tomato paste, meaning that you'll be able to emulate the color that the tomatoes give your food.

Harissa is especially good to use in place of tomato paste when you're looking to achieve the sweetness that tomatoes impart to a meal (per The Takeout). As the two pastes have a similar texture, harissa will also not alter the consistency of your food too much. The main thing to do before throwing harissa paste into a meal, though, is to taste it first. While the majority of harissa pastes are only mildly spicy, certain blends can be incredibly hot, and the heat can take a little while to reach its full intensity, Love Food states. The last thing you want to do is throw in too much and make your food inedible for your guests.

Tomato purée is pretty similar to tomato paste, so much so that you might assume that they're interchangeable. But while you can definitely sub tomato purée in for paste, the consistency of the two products differs slightly. Where tomato paste is a thick, intense mash of cooked tomatoes, tomato purée is cooked for slightly less time, meaning that it's both slightly runnier and has a milder flavor. If you're adding it in place of tomato paste, you'll need to put roughly double the amount in.

Where tomato purée really shines, though, is that because it's essentially a thinner version of tomato paste, you can use it to make your own version of it. All you have to do is put a couple tablespoons into a pan, add heat, and cook until it reduces and the flavor develops. It's advisable to use a non-stick pan to do this so that you don't have to add any oil, which will alter the flavor of the paste you're making. Once that's done, you can put your newly-made paste into a jar, and store it in the fridge — or just use it straight away. You'll never be caught short of tomato paste again!

Have you ever bought a jar of olive tapenade, used a quarter of it when guests came around that one time, and then had it sit in your fridge for evermore? Well, here's the perfect opportunity to use it up. Olive tapenade is a surprising, yet effective substitute for tomato paste, according to The Stonesoup. Although olives and tomatoes obviously don't taste the same, olive tapenade has a savory depth that you'll also find in tomato paste, so can provide a similar element to your food. Usefully, tapenade is also a near-identical consistency to tomato paste, so you won't have to worry about reducing moisture or changing cooking times.

Using olive tapenade may be preferable to some individuals, thanks to it being separate from the nightshade family that tomatoes belong to (per WebMD). Also including eggplants and potatoes (as well as, interestingly, tobacco), nightshades contain levels of chemicals called alkaloids, which can cause some people to feel nauseous. Certain individuals also carry nightshade intolerances, which may cause bloating or gas due to difficulty digesting the plants, according to Healthline. If you suspect you have a nightshade intolerance or an even rarer nightshade allergy, it's important to speak to your doctor.