What can be substituted for tomato sauce?

In this blog post, we will answer the following question: What can be substituted for tomato sauce? We will talk about the best alternatives for tomato sauce, and why would anyone want to replace it!

What can be substituted for tomato sauce?

A substitute for the commercial tomato sauce is your own homemade tomato juice, you can replace the existing tomato juice! And to replace tomato juice, nothing could be simpler: opt for tomato sauce combined with water! You just need to mix tomato sauce and water in equal parts in a bowl and mix well. This gives you a substitute for tomato juice. You can add a little pinch of salt to make it even better. 

This “homemade” derivative of tomato juice can then be consumed as a drink, or in a cocktail like real tomato juice. You can add celery salt, tabasco, or even Worcestershire sauce. There are many recipes that allow you to make homemade tomato juice. 

But the ideal remains the mixture of tomato sauce and water. You can then add whatever you want to it as you wish. 

Here’s our advice:

  1.  In a container, mix tomato sauce and water. If you can’t eat salt, your homemade tomato juice is ideal. If you find that it is not salty enough, you can add salt as per your convenience. The more you dilute the tomato sauce in the water, the more liquid and flavorless your juice will be. Ideally, we measure the water and tomato sauce in equal amounts, but it’s up to you to find what works best for you.
  1. Tomato juice bought in the store is not necessarily to everyone’s taste. Too salty, too many preservatives … If you want to replace this store-bought tomato juice with a homemade juice, the recipe is very simple:

 You need tomato juice (bought in supermarkets, or made directly with tomatoes from your garden from which you will extract the juice), a cup of pieces of celery, a cup of diced onions, three carrots, a chili pepper cut into large pieces, four tablespoons of sugar, two teaspoons of vinegar and two bunches of parsley. You put the carrots, onions, celery, chili, and parsley in a cheesecloth, then close. 

Soak the vegetable mixture in a pot of tomato juice, and let it boil for about 30 minutes. Remove the vegetables. You can then fill several jars with your homemade tomato juice. Alternative: if you want to preserve the vegetables, you can pass them through the juicer and then add them to your tomato juice and then boil for 30 minutes.

Other FAQs about Sauces which you may be interested in.

What can I add to the white sauce for flavor?

Should I add butter to tomato sauce? 

Is pesto healthier than tomato sauce?

Any other alternatives to tomato sauce?

You will see that you can easily replace the tomato sauce by varying the pleasures, with vegetable sauces, vegetable creams, or even pesto.

By the way, why replace the tomato sauce? For allergy sufferers, of course… but not only! Oh well, would tomato sauce be bad for your health?

Is the tomato a vegetable after all? Already we have a doubt: vegetable or fruit? If you want to finally know the botanical distinction, follow this link. On the nutritional side, the fruit/vegetable distinction will mainly be linked to the number of acids and sugars, but it doesn’t matter.

Certainly, the tomato has some good points:

  • the tomato contains lycopene, an antioxidant which is protective of the cardiovascular system in particular
  • it also contains vitamin C in interesting quantities
  • it contains a good amount of fiber

So what’s the problem? The tomato is very sour … Like many fruits elsewhere. It contains over 400 mg of citric acid per 100g, which is a lot.

To digest starches (carbohydrates), we have an enzyme in our saliva (called ptyalin), which begins to break down (digest) complex sugars.

Very concretely, it transforms starch into dextrose and maltose, two smaller “sugars”.

Of course, it does not do all the work, the rest of the digestion will be carried out further down the digestive tract, at the level of the duodenum (beginning of the intestine).

But this 1st intervention is very important in order not to leave all the work to the intestine (and the pancreas!), Which in addition to managing the digestion of carbohydrates, has a lot to do with that of lipids and proteins!

What is the link with our tomato? Ptyalin needs a rather alkaline medium, if there is too much acidity it is inactivated!

So if you eat something very acidic along with your starchy foods, you are affecting your digestion! However, tomato sauce is often used with starchy foods (pasta, pizzas, etc.)

Conclusions

A great substitution for the tomato paste is fresh tomatoes or crushed tomatoes. Also, if you have bought tomato sauce from the supermarket and you are not happy with your choice, mix it with water. 

This “homemade” derivative of tomato juice can then be consumed as a drink, or in a cocktail like real tomato juice. You can add celery salt, tabasco, or even Worcestershire sauce. There are many recipes that allow you to make homemade tomato juice. 

If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions on the content, please let us know!