How to properly prepare tomato paste at home: simple recipes

Tomato paste is one of the most popular products in the kitchen. You can’t cook delicious borscht, flavorful cabbage rolls, and various sauces for poultry, meat, and fish without it.

The simplest thing is to go to the store and buy the product there. But homemade tomato paste is much tastier and healthier than its industrial counterpart. When I take a jar from a store shelf, I am always confused by the number of additives on the label that begin with the letter E. I don’t even want to figure out what they mean, one thing is clear - it is not safe for health.

Therefore, I suggest making your own tomato paste. If you have a good harvest of tomatoes this year, you can make very tasty tomatoes in gelatin from small fruits. The rest will be processed to make bright, tasty and aromatic pasta. You can add pureed apples or plums to it and get tomato sauce with a new taste and aroma.

How to properly prepare tomato paste at home from tomatoes

This method of cooking tomato paste is the most common. Despite the fact that the vegetable mass has to be boiled for a long time, you will be pleased with the result. The tomato paste is almost the same thickness as store-bought, has a very beautiful bright color and amazing taste.

Ingredients:

3 kg - tomatoes
100 g - granulated sugar
100 ml - vinegar 9%
salt - to taste

Cut the tomatoes into arbitrary pieces, cutting out the hard core. Place in a cooking pot and place on the stove. Bring to a boil and cook the tomatoes for 10-15 minutes until they give a lot of juice and become soft.
Place the mixture on a metal sieve and rub with a spoon so that the seeds and skins remain. You can throw away the pulp, and put the tomato mass back on the stove.
After boiling, reduce the heat and simmer the mixture to the desired thickness for 3-4 hours.
Cooking time directly depends on the consistency you want to achieve.
To prevent the paste from burning on the bottom, you need to stir it periodically.
5-7 minutes before completion, add salt, sugar and vinegar. Mix thoroughly and pack into sterile jars up to the neck. Then we roll it up and leave it to cool, wrapped warmly so as not to disturb the natural sterilization processes.

Store the finished preserves in a cool place where the rest of the preparations are located.

Sauce made from tomato paste and flour

We usually call this combination of ingredients gravy. It is traditionally served with side dishes and minced meat dishes. Take note of this recipe, it will help you out more than once.

Let's distribute it on the desktop:

vegetable oil and tomato paste - 2 tables each. spoons;
white onion – 1 pc.;
premium wheat flour – 1 heaped tablespoon;
garlic – 3 cloves;
cold water – 500 ml;
bay leaf – 1 piece;
mixture of Italian herbs – 5 grams;
parsley – 3 sprigs;
sugar and salt - at your discretion.

Culinary stages:

Peel the onion, chop finely, sauté in a preheated frying pan for 5-7 minutes or until distinctly golden brown. Then add finely chopped garlic and fry for about another minute.
Sift a spoonful of flour into a frying pan with onion and garlic, stirring continuously and heat the mixture for 3 minutes until the characteristic “nutty” aroma is released.
Combine with pasta, reduce heat slightly, simmer ingredients together for a few minutes.
In small portions, remembering to stir, pour in 1/3 of the water. Dissolve the thickened mixture, and when the mass becomes homogeneous, pour in the rest. Pay special attention to the temperature of the infused liquid. It must definitely be cold. It is best to hide it in the refrigerator in advance and take it out immediately before use.
Let the gravy boil, then stir in the Italian herbs, salt, pepper, bay leaf and a little sugar.
Reduce the heat to the minimum possible, and simmer the mixture under the lid, stirring from time to time, for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from heat, adjust the amount of spices if necessary, sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

A little trick: if you oversalt your meatballs, meatballs or cutlets, serve them with the same gravy, but cooked without salt. The gravy will draw out excess salt from the minced meat, and a taste balance will be achieved.

Thick tomato paste for the winter “You'll lick your fingers”

This recipe makes the paste thick and much healthier than the one sold in the store. It turns out to be a wonderfully rich color and the cooking method is very simple.

Ingredients:

3.5 kg - fresh tomatoes

If you do not have your own tomatoes, but store-bought ones, the cream variety is very suitable for harvesting. They are not so watery and have a fleshy flesh.

Wash the tomatoes, remove the center, cut into slices, and place in a pan.
Let's put it on the stove. Bring to a boil and cook for 15-20 minutes.
When the tomatoes are boiled and the skin begins to fall off the pulp, remove the pan from the stove and grind through a metal sieve.
Put the remaining puree back on the fire and boil until it reaches the required thickness.
To prevent the tomato mass from burning at the bottom, stir it regularly.
This is what tomato paste looks like after 2 hours of boiling.
Pack the hot mixture into sterilized jars and seal with boiled lids. Then we turn the preservation over and leave it to cool under a warm cloth. The output was 800 ml of thick tomato paste. You can store the workpiece in a cool place.

You can use homemade pasta in any way you like - season the borscht and serve it with pasta. And if you add garlic and cilantro to it, you get a spicy sauce and an excellent dressing for meat.

Pepper lecho with tomato paste: a simple recipe

Ingredients:

pepper – 1 kg;
tomato paste – 350 g;
water – 0.8 l;
sugar – 2.5 tbsp. l.;
salt – 0.5 tbsp. l.
vinegar (9 percent) - 2 tbsp. l.

Cooking method

Prepare sterile jars with lids in advance.
Wash the pepper, cut it in half, remove the seeds, cut out the stalks. Cut the fruit into long strips.
Mix tomato paste with water and pour into a wide saucepan. Add vinegar, sugar and salt. Stir. Bring to a boil.
Dip the pepper into the sauce. Simmer over low heat for about half an hour.
When boiling, place in liter or half liter jars. Seal tightly with sterile lids. Turn it upside down and wrap it in a blanket. Leave it like this until it cools completely.

The most delicious tomato and pepper paste recipe

Adding sweet bell pepper will not only add its own unique flavor, but also enrich the paste with vitamins. For the preparation, it is better to take red pods to get a beautiful and rich color.

Ingredients:

7 kg - tomatoes
6 pcs. - sweet bell pepper
1 tbsp. l. - salt

Wash the vegetables and cut them into small pieces (remove the seeds and tails from the peppers).
Grind the prepared tomatoes and peppers through a meat grinder.
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Pour the vegetable puree into a deep bowl. I didn’t have one, so I had to pour it into two pans.
Bring the mixture over high heat until it boils. Then we place a metal sieve on top and begin to collect excess liquid with a ladle.
By this action we will reduce the time of boiling the paste and it will quickly reach the desired thickness.
I collected 4 liters of surplus in 40 minutes.
I advise you not to pour out the collected broth, but use it as a vegetable broth in soups or use it as a filling for other preservation.
Combine the remaining puree in one pan and use a blender to make the mass more homogeneous.
Then reduce the heat to low and simmer the pasta for another 15 minutes, stirring all the time. Then we pour it hot into sterile jars and roll up the boiled lids with a special machine. Turn the twists upside down and leave them to cool in a warm place.
I had free space in the freezer, so when it had cooled completely, I distributed some of the tomato paste into small portion bags (3 tablespoons included).

They are very convenient to use later when preparing a wide variety of dishes - borscht, sauces, dressings for casseroles, etc.

Tomato paste and honey sauce for poultry

Juicy, tender, rosy chicken wings or thighs with sweet and sour honey dip are a great option not only for dinner, but also for the holiday table.

This recipe can become the main one in your culinary collection, because... the resulting sauce can be used both as a marinade and as a glaze for meat dishes.

We take out from stocks:

honey – 3 tbsp;
tomato paste and vegetable oil - 4 tablespoons each. spoons;
soy sauce and wine vinegar - 2 tbsp each;
ground paprika – 1 tbsp;
cumin seeds – ½ tsp;
onion – 1 pc.;
garlic – 4 cloves;
coriander – 5 g;
ground black and red peppers - to taste;
water – 1 glass.

Culinary Steps:

Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté in a saucepan with butter over low heat for 7 minutes.
Add all ingredients except paste and honey, simmer for half an hour, then strain.
Place over low heat, combine with remaining ingredients and bring until thickened.
When ready, add the missing spices, if necessary. Serve in individual bowls for easy dipping of chicken pieces.

As an option. Try also serving this delicious dip with the delights of Asian cuisine - funchose with vegetables, sobe with chicken, udon with seafood.

Bulgarian lecho with garlic

Garlic always gives a dish a special aroma. There are those who really love dishes with garlic. Therefore, this simple recipe for preparing the famous garlic snack is for you.

Ingredients (for 8 l):

fleshy bell pepper - 5 kg
tomatoes - 4 kg
vinegar 9% - 80 gr.
sugar - 1 tbsp.
garlic - 1 head
refined sunflower oil – 120 ml
salt - to taste

Preparation:

As you can see, there are more peppers in this recipe than tomatoes. This proportion will make the appetizer thicker than in recipes where there are more tomatoes. Grind the washed tomatoes in any convenient way: through a meat grinder, in a blender or in a juicer.
Wash the pepper thoroughly, remove the stem, seeds and membranes. Cut the pulp into medium squares. Pour the chopped tomatoes into a large saucepan or basin and boil.
Add chopped pepper to the boiling tomato and bring to a boil. Next, add sugar, salt, and vegetable oil. Cook for 15 minutes. At first there will be a lot of pepper and it may seem like there is not enough sauce. Don’t worry, the pepper will also release juice and shrink in size. This way it will be completely covered with tomato.
After 15 minutes, add the garlic, passed through a press, and vinegar to the salad. Stir and cook for the last 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, you need to seal the workpiece in sterilized jars and roll up with sterile lids.

It turns out to be a moderately thick snack, very tasty and aromatic.

Spicy recipe for lecho with tomato juice for the winter

Ingredients:

pepper – 2 kg;
tomato juice – 1 l;
a bunch of parsley;
sunflower oil – 90 ml;
sugar – 15 g;
salt – 120 g;
9% vinegar – 50 ml;
hot red pepper – 2 pcs.;
onion – 0.4 kg;
black pepper – 1 tsp;
spices to taste;
garlic to taste.

Preparation.

Rinse the vegetables under running water and dry with a paper towel. Remove stems and seeds. Remove the skins from the onion and garlic.
Cut the bell pepper into slices, hot pepper into rings, onion as desired, finely chop the garlic.
Pour tomato liquid and oil into a thick-bottomed pan and let it boil.
Pour chopped vegetables into boiling liquid. Salt, add sugar, spices and garlic. Simmer over low heat for a quarter of an hour, stirring occasionally.
Wash and sort the greens, chop finely and add to the pan. To stir thoroughly. Simmer for about 3 more minutes.
Season with vinegar and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
Pour the finished product into a sterilized container, twist and turn over. After the product has cooled, the jars can be sent for storage.

Lecho for the winter with tomato juice

Thick, aromatic lecho is, of course, always delicious. But there are lovers who especially love the sauce in it, so juicy and sweet and sour.

A special recipe with tomato juice was prepared especially for these people. This dish turns out to be more liquid, but no less appetizing.

Ingredients:

Bell pepper – 1 kg
Tomato juice - 2 liters
Sugar - 3 tablespoons
Salt - 2 tablespoons (to taste)
Citric acid on the tip of a spoon

Preparation:

Pour tomato juice into a large saucepan where the vegetable stock will be prepared. Add sugar and salt there and mix well.
You can use your own prepared juice, or buy it at the store. When purchasing it, make sure that it is 100% juice, completely natural, and preferably without any additives.
Cut the peppers into longitudinal strips, of course, after removing the stems and seeds. Place them immediately into the pan.
The cutting method can be any. Personally, I like to cut it quite large in this version, so that when we eat it, you can feel it. Take red or orange fruits, they have already acquired both taste and aroma, and the finished product from such vegetables will be the most delicious.
Place the pan on the fire and bring the mixture to a boil. Moreover, the boiling process should be uniform over the entire area, and not in individual places.
It will take about 10 minutes to cook the contents. Stirring is absolutely not necessary, since the vegetables can soften too much and break, which is absolutely not what we want. Everything will cook perfectly evenly in the juice. There are no onions or carrots here, so long-term heat treatment is not required.
By the time cooking is finished, the jars and lids should already be sterilized.
Lecho should be poured into jars while hot. First fill one of them, and immediately screw it on. Then the next one, and so on until everything is screwed in. Cover with metal lids.
At this time, we do not remove the pan with the contents from the heat; we set only its lowest value.
Place the finished preserves under the blanket on the lids and wait until it cools down. Then you can put the filled container in a cool, dark room.
This recipe is very simple, without any tricks or frills. But it is so tasty that every year you prepare a small batch of it.