Make Tomato Paste Great Again or Preserving Tomato Paste

I just made a chickpea stew. The recipe only required 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, leaving about 7 tablespoons in the can. As I live alone, I don't go through even a small can of tomato paste very quickly. To save some money, therefore, I did some research into how to preserve the unused paste. This research also led me to some additional uses to use up the can (or the frozen bits in the freezer). Below you'll find a method to freeze extra tomato paste and what to do with it down the road.

You can freeze the unused tomato paste, provided you break it down into smaller globs. For this, you'll need:

1. Leftover tomato paste.
2. A scale with grams in decimals. When I made this, I discovered that the spoon and paste was too heavy for my jewelry scale, so I had to switch to my Taylor kitchen scale.
3. Two eating spoons. This makes getting the paste off the spoons easier.
4. A freezing tray. I use a silicone ice cube tray, but you can use parchment paper or silicone mats on a baking sheet.
5. A freezer-safe container. A Ziplock bag is fine.
6. Because someone will complain if I don't include the obvious, you will also need a freezer.

As you can see in the first picture, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste is 33 grams. That means each tablespoon is 16.5 grams. Now, follow these steps . . .

1. To get an accurate weight, place your spoon on the scale and press the Tare button.
2. Now, scoop out some tomato paste and weigh the spoon. You are trying to get to that 16.5 grams needed for a tablespoon. In the picture, you will see I go to 17 grams. My reasoning for this is that some of the paste will be lost on the spoons during the process. (And also that my scale does not do grams in decimals, so I had to compromise.) Therefore, going a little over means I will probably be at the correct weight for each glob.
3. Once you achieve the correct weight, put the glob of paste on your freezing tray using the 2-spoon method pictured. Do this for the entire can of paste. Having used 3 tablespoons for a recipe, I was left with 7 globs weighing 17 grams each, getting the 10 tablespoons out of the can that the label promised.
4. Put the freezing tray into the freezer.
5. Allow the paste to freeze completely.
6. Remove the tray from the freezer and put the frozen globs of paste into the freezer bag. I recommend you try to keep them separated so as to not freeze together while waiting to be used.

For every tablespoon of tomato paste you need for a recipe, simply take a glob from the freezer.

According to sources, you can make tomato purée by using a 1:1 volume ratio of paste to water. In other words, a 1 tablespoon glob of frozen tomato paste mixed with 1 tablespoon of water will result in 2 tablespoons of tomato purée.

On visual inspection (canned on the left; paste on the right), they are fairly close. The paste-based purée looks a little more watery than the canned purée. However, their taste profiles are so close that I have difficulty telling them apart.

Cost-wise, the canned purée was $1.89 for a 28-ounce can. This is NOT fluid ounces. The label says there are thirteen ¼ cup servings in the can. Dividing that out, that comes to 14.5¢ per ¼ cup serving. The tomato paste is 9.9¢ per 1 tablespoon glob, and one would need 2 globs to make ¼ cup, costing 19.8¢. One can see that buying the purée is less expensive. As it contains only tomato paste, water, and citric acid, using purée is the more logical choice. The only time it isn't is if you only need like 1 or 2 tablespoons of purée. Why buy a 28-ounce can of purée when you have tomato paste in the freezer?

Tomato juice is the next dilution of tomato paste. To achieve tomato juice, you will use a 1:4 volume ratio. In other words, a 1 tablespoon glob of frozen tomato paste mixed with 4 tablespoons (or ¼ cup) of water will result in 5 tablespoons of tomato juice. If you want an 8-ounce glass of tomato juice, use 3 globs of paste with ¾ cup of water. That gets you 7½ ounces in your 8-ounce glass.

We seem to have a distinct color variation between the bottled tomato juice (left) and the paste-based juice (right). It seems to be redder, and the texture is a bit thicker. I would say that the paste makes a slightly inferior, but still palatable, juice. As with the purée, this does not contain anything our bodies wouldn't recognize (water, tomato concentrate, salt, vitamin C, citric acid), so there is no argument for the paste being healthier.

Cost-wise, the Kroger-brand price for tomato juice is $2.59 for 46 fl. oz., or 5.6¢ per fluid ounce. One glob of tomato paste is 9.9¢, and it makes 2½ fl. oz. That comes to 4¢ per fluid ounce, meaning you'll save money by making tomato juice from tomato paste. This will make Bloody Marys less expensive!

IN PRACTICE: I have now made a few bottles of "juice" from tomato paste. I've gotta say, it's hit and miss. It really all depends on which tomato paste brand one uses. The juice I made from the Kroger generic was watery and tinny. However, the juice made from Contadina brand is quite close to the taste of purchased juice. The only reason I even tried this was the Contadina paste was on sale for the same price as the Kroger. With the Contadina, I got 52 fl. oz. of juice for $1.49 instead of having to pay $2.59. I'll be buying more Contadina paste when it is on sale again, as I go through 2 bottles of tomato juice a week.

The third dilution gets you to tomato sauce. Here, you will use a 1:10 volume ratio. In other words, a 1 tablespoon glob of frozen tomato paste mixed with 10 tablespoons (or just short of ⅔ cup) of water will result in 11 tablespoons of tomato sauce.

When it comes to quality, the canned beats the paste-based without question. Look how thin the paste-based is (middle) compared to the canned (left). I wouldn't want to use this in a recipe calling for tomato sauce.

Just like the tomato purée, tomato sauce is sold by weight and not volume. A 15-oz. can has seven ¼-cup servings according to the label. So, the cost of the can is $1 (if buying the Kroger brand). Divide that by 7 servings, and you get 14.3¢ per ¼ cup. The 11 tablespoons of paste-based sauce equals 2¾ quarter cups. With one glob being 9.9¢, that means the cost per quarter cup is 3.6¢, clearly trouncing the 14.3¢ of the canned variety. There is clearly a savings to be had in this ratio.

Unfortunately, it makes a product I wouldn't want to use. It looks thinner than the juice! So, what if I split the difference between the purée and the juice, using a ratio of 1:3? I'd get a thicker sauce that would still cost less than canned (9.9¢ vs 14.3¢, respectively). You can see the result of the 1:3 ratio in the picture on the right. It is more usable but is still not as thick as canned.

Yes, I said "tomato" ketchup because you can make ketchup from other things, like mushrooms. To make tomato ketchup from tomato paste is a little more detailed. For every 1-tablespoon glob of thawed tomato paste, you will need 2 teaspoons of white vinegar, 1 teaspoon of water, and 1 teaspoon of honey. You can also add whatever spices you would like, such as pinches of onion and/or garlic powder. When your ketchup bottle gets low, just throw in all these ingredients and shake it up!

The paste-based ketchup is definitely more flavorful than the bottled. However, it is also much thinner (bottled on top; paste-based on bottom).

Cost-wise, the ingredients for frozen paste ketchup come to about 22.2¢ for just the above recipe amount, which comes to about 7 teaspoons and about 3.17¢ per teaspoon. The cheapest Kroger ketchup costs 1.2¢ per teaspoon. Making ketchup from paste does not save money. However, it does allow you to control the chemical additives. No more ketchup with high fructose corn syrup.

In the picture on the right, I've increased the amount of tomato paste. That changes the calculations to 32.1¢ for 10 teaspoons, or 3.21¢. This results is something closer to store-bought but is still way more expensive.

Using tomato paste to make juice or sauce saves money, but making purée or ketchup don't. It seems there is some benefit to freezing tomato paste on top of using it later in other recipes as tomato paste. Now that I have gone through the freezing process, I will be comfortable enough with doing it again. I just need to start growing my own tomatoes to make this all from scratch!