Homemade Tomato Puree without preservatives

Making tomato puree is very easy. You can use tomato puree almost every kind of foods to increase the taste. Here are simple steps to make tomato puree at home and store without preservative.

Ingredients

Tomato - 1 kg

Salt – 2 teaspoons

Water

Methods

Firstly rinse the tomatoes very well. Using a paring knife or a small knife make a ½ inch criss-cross cut on the base of the tomatoes (not on the stalk side).

Now take a large pan and heat water in it. The water should be enough for the tomatoes to be immersed, approx. 2 litter water for 1 kg of tomatoes. Make sure the tomatoes have space to move and are not over crowded in the pan.

Add salt. I have added 2 teaspoons of salt. You can easily halve or double the salt depending on the amount of tomatoes you are using.

Let the water come to a rolling boil on a high flame.

Gently place the tomatoes in the hot water. Cook the tomatoes in the hot boiling water for 2 minutes.

Then switch off the flame and let the tomatoes be immersed in the hot water for 10 to 15 minutes. Cover the pan. I do not shock the tomatoes in cold water, but if you want you can do that. Boil the tomatoes for 2 minutes in hot boiling water and then place them in cold water for 2 minutes.

Using a colander or strainer strain the tomatoes. Let them become warm or cool completely at room temperature.

Once the tomatoes are at room temperature, on a clean chopping board with clean hands, peel the skins and discard them.

Slice the eye part on the stalk part of the tomato and discard.

Using a clean chopping board and clean knife and with clean hands, chop the tomatoes roughly. If you have a powerful blender you can just throw in whole tomatoes in it. No need to chop them.

Add the chopped tomatoes in a blender jar or grinder jar.

Purée till smooth.

Place a bowl or pan beneath a juice strainer. Add the tomato pulp in the strainer.

While straining, stir with a spoon and press the pulp while stirring so that all the purée and pulp is strained leaving only the seeds in the strainer.

You will see a lovely red tomato puree collected in the bowl.

Storing Tomato Puree

Pour homemade tomato puree in a sterilized glass jar. To sterilize the jar, you can boil the jar and lid in hot boiling water for 5 minutes or rinse the jar and lid with hot water.

You can even pour in ice cubes trays. If you want you could cover the tray loosely with a parchment paper or foil before freezing. Once they are frozen, remove them and keep in an air-tight box or a sealed zip-lock bag in the freezer. Just pop in the cubes in any dish.

Handy Tip: Replace 1 medium sized tomato with ½ cup tomato puree.