The 5 Best Substitutes for Crushed Tomatoes

There’s nothing like the simplicity of canned tomatoes to help complete a recipe. There are so many things you can do with crushed tomatoes: from homemade salsa to lasagna dishes and everything in between.

We’d like to know your favorite ways to use crushed tomatoes and how you mix them in the kitchen. Basically anything that needs a tomato sauce could easily use crushed tomatoes as the base for that sauce.

We always try to have crushed tomatoes on hand, but that’s not always the case. When you’re in a hurry to get your hands on crushed tomatoes, what’s the best substitute?

Crushing fresh tomatoes yourself is the best option to replace canned crushed tomatoes, but there are several options you can try, such as canned tomato paste, salsa, or a combination of both, depending on what you’re making.

In this guide, we’ll talk about crushed tomatoes, including a detailed discussion of the best substitutes for crushed tomatoes. We have a lot of interesting information in store for you. By the time we’re done, you’ll be able to make the best of any crushed tomato emergency.

Read on for the best substitute for crushed tomato and much more.

Guide to the best substitute for crushed tomato

If you like to make things with tomatoes, but don’t want to mess with slicing and crushing, or chopping or blending fresh tomatoes, a reliable can of crushed tomatoes will certainly do the trick.

Crushed tomatoes are made with Roma tomatoes (usually) that are first peeled and seeded . The tomatoes are then crushed and mixed with tomato puree to give the mixture a full texture.

The added tomato puree makes the mix the perfect combination of chunky and smooth for a number of sauces and recipe variations.

You can make your own diced tomato at home if you are looking for a way to use or preserve some home grown tomatoes. It is really very simple to do, like what we have described above. You don’t have to do much else, apart from maybe adding some salt for preservation.

You can then can your own crushed tomatoes and store them in your pantry for when the need arises. Ideally, crushed tomatoes work best when you have to make something with this particular mix , but you can get by with other options as well.

Use of crushed tomatoes

Crushed tomatoes can be used for many different things. A lot of people use crushed tomatoes to make homemade tomato-based sauces, but they can be used for a lot of different things.

If you need tomatoes, you can probably use crushed tomatoes and make them. The only exception is when you specifically need sliced tomatoes.

Here are some good options for using crushed tomatoes:

• pizza sauce
• ravioli
• lasagna
• Tomato soup
• tomato pie
• chili
• Dip
• Masala
• Meat sauce
• Marinara sauce
• meatball dishes
• Chicken Parmesan
• spaghetti sauce
• Braised leg of lamb
• Any red pasta sauce

As you can see, this list is long, and honestly, it’s just a few popular options. There are so many things you can do with crushed tomatoes.

Substitution for Crushed Tomatoes: The Top 5 Options

Crushed tomatoes are easy to use for many things, but it’s easy not to have them on hand when you need them. Or maybe your local grocery store is low on stock for some reason.

Lucky for you, there are plenty of great alternatives to substitute for crushed tomatoes. The best option, by far, is to make your own . You can make them completely from scratch or use a combination of other tomato products to get a very similar product.

It is a very simple and very effective solution. It is without a doubt our favourite. If you’re a little hesitant to attempt this on your own, don’t worry, we may have other tricks up our sleeves for you.

The fact is that there are several ways to do it on your own. As we go through the rest of this guide, most of our substitution options will be various ways to make a substitute.

Don’t worry too much, you can use other canned tomato products for the most part to make your own crushed tomato. Let’s get started, okay?

1. Fresh tomatoes

Guess what crushed tomatoes are made from? That’s right: fresh tomatoes! So using fresh tomatoes is a great way to replace crushed tomatoes.

Dice those fresh tomatoes and put them in a food processor or blender.  You don’t want to blend them all the way, as this will make a sauce, but you can get close.

You can season if you want (salt, cilantro), but it’s not really necessary until you make the sauce or whatever you’re going to use those crushed tomatoes for.

If you really want the perfect crushed tomato , add a small amount of tomato paste to your brew and you’ll get it almost perfect in texture and overall finish.

2. Tomato paste

The tomato paste is nice and thick and while it’s thicker than you’d usually expect from crushed tomatoes, it’s a suitable substitute.

Tomato paste is definitely much thicker than crushed tomatoes , so there are a couple of things to know about using this substitute.

First of all, it is best if you can add fresh tomatoes or even diced tomatoes and mix it all together . If that’s not possible, try adding a small amount of water to thin out the consistency a bit.

Finally, you should know that you will not need as much tomato paste as crushed tomatoes, unless you combine that tomato paste with another substance to achieve a different thickness.

3. Diced tomatoes

This is another homemade substitute option, or you can buy canned diced tomatoes. It is quite similar to the other options we have shared.

Once again, you will need to blend them or use a food processor to puree them slightly . Remember that you don’t want to turn them into a tomato sauce.

You can add tomato paste or tomato puree to them for an almost identical flavor and consistency to crushed tomatoes.

After all, crushed tomatoes are made from a mixture of tomato and tomato paste.

4. Tomato sauce + tomato paste

You can use just tomato sauce as a suitable substitute, but its consistency will not be quite right. Depending on what you’re doing, you can probably get it to work anyway.

However, if you want to turn this substitute into a winning option, we recommend mixing some tomato paste into your tomato sauce.  The tomato paste will thicken the sauce and add the texture you are looking for.

It is not a perfect solution, but it is a very good replacement option if these items are in your pantry or if you have made a mistake when making the purchase.

5. Sauce for spaghetti or pizza

If all else fails, you can try using another tomato-based sauce as a substitute. The problem here is that these sauces are usually seasoned, so their flavor may vary due to this.

However, if you are making a red sauce for pasta or pizza , these will work quite well.

If you do other things that call for crushed tomato, just adjust the seasonings to incorporate those in these ready-made sauces.

Again, you can add a bit of tomato paste if you need to thicken it up . It’s not the perfect solution, but it will do in a pinch.

Bottom Line: Crushed Tomato Substitutes

Crushed tomatoes are perhaps one of the easiest pantry items to find substitutes for.

Whether you need a substitute because you picked the wrong tomato product off the shelf, or you think you have it and you don’t, there are plenty of options for you.

You can turn almost any other tomato product into crushed tomato if you’re willing to give it a try.

Related questions

We hope you find this guide to the best substitute for crushed tomatoes a helpful and informative resource in dealing with your crushed tomato crisis. Here are several great options for you, so you should be able to find something that works!

We invite you to review the following question and answer section for additional information that might be helpful.

If I use whole tomatoes, do I have to boil them first?

You don’t really need to boil them first, but you can. If you don’t want the skins or seeds in your crushed tomatoes, you can boil them for only 20-30 seconds to make the skins easier to peel. This is purely optional and depends on your preferences.

What is the difference between tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes?

Actually, the tomatoes in the tomato sauce are cooked to a thick, concentrated sauce, then strained to separate any chunks or seeds.

Instead, crushed tomatoes are made directly from whole tomatoes, with no need to cook them.