Vibrant red tomato puree is that quintessential ingredient without which none of the Indian curries would be complete! And making this at home is a pure bliss!
Isn’t that red color of pure homemade tomato puree looking amazing? It’s stunning to me. And this feeling of accomplishment is exactly the reason for which I take all this pain to make tomato puree at home! Yes, you have to agree that making tomato puree at home takes a lot of effort and patience, but the final result is outstanding.
Like the saying goes – “every good thing comes for a price”, which holds good even for making a basic tomato puree which forms the base of so many delicious recipes. You can easily buy a pack of ready-made tomato puree from the grocery store and it will also taste nice [I mean, I was doing the same for so many years!], but making tomato puree from scratch at home is a divine feeling and you will surely agree if you had done it even at least once.
Any homemade stuff is definitely the healthiest choice devoid of any preservative and unknown chemicals. So if you want to make that healthy decision, go ahead and give yourself this pain to gain something extremely beneficial!
But just don’t forget to make a large batch of homemade tomato puree which you can freeze and use for few weeks! All your Indian curries will be a breeze when you have the homemade tomato puree handy! Enjoy!
Also check out my video recipe of basic tomato sauce from fresh San Marzano tomato!
- Tomatoes – 1 kg [use as much red tomatoes as possible and avoid those which still have the green tinge.]
- Vinegar – 2 tbsp
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Sugar – 2 tbsp, optional
- Wash the tomatoes well. Give a criss-cross cut at the bottom of each tomato, but do not cut them all the way through.
- In a big bowl boil water. Bowl should be quite big which could contain 1 kg of tomatoes. I didn’t have any, so I did it in two batches.
- When the water is bubbling, add the tomatoes and boil them at medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Now remove from fire and drain. Add cold water to make it easier to handle.
- You can wait till the tomatoes cool down a bit. Then peel off the skin. It will come out quite easily since the tomatoes have become very soft.
- Cut the tomatoes and discard the seeds.
- Put the tomato pulp in a blender and blend them till very smooth. You can use a hand blender too.
- Now transfer the blended pulp in a heavy bottomed pan and put it on medium heat.
- Bring it to boil. Add vinegar, salt and sugar.
- When the puree starts bubbling, lower the heat to the minimum and cook until a thick consistency is reached. Making a thicker puree will increase the shelf-life.
- Remove from fire and set aside to cool down completely.
- Store it in fridge in a clean & airtight glass bottle and use a clean spoon every time you use it.
Hi, Lovely pics! I’ve always wanted to make tomato purée at home, I use to wonder how long back they’ve made this, when I see canned purée. Tnx for the recipe. Can I substitute lime for vinegar?
Hi..
Thanks for stopping by and giving lovely feedback. As for substituting vinegar with lime, I am not too sure about it. When I made it, I explored many recipes on the net and all of them mentioned using vinegar only. I will give it a shot and let you know if there is any difference. Thanks!