How To Cook With Canned Tomatoes

If you don’t have a half-dozen cans of tomatoes in your pantry at any single point in time, then we’re here to convince you why you should.

Canned tomatoes are the perfect pantry staple — you can use them in nearly anything! They work great as a base for soups and sauces, they’re great toppings for tacos and enchiladas, they’re quick additions to casseroles and they’re there when you’re totally out of fresh vegetables.

(Can you tell we really love canned tomatoes?)

Here are a few ways you can use the various kinds of canned tomatoes out there, and why you should absolutely go buy, like, a dozen of them right now.

Recipes using different kinds of canned tomatoes

Canned whole tomatoes

Caprese bruschetta 

The best kind of caprese bruschetta is the kind that lets you take a bite without the toppings sliding all over the place. 

The solution? Canned tomatoes! 

The pre-cooked tomatoes are soft and sweet and can be easily sliced and placed on top of some fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and a slice of crunchy bread. You can even buy the tomatoes that come pre-sliced and pre-seasoned, making your job even easier!

Tagine

Tagines are slow-cooked Moroccan stews that are traditionally cooked in cone-shaped clay pots, though the recipes translate well to slow cookers and Dutch ovens, too. 

Many tagine recipes have a tomato base, so using whole canned tomatoes is a two-in-one win. You get some sauce, you get some texture and you get to use approximately zero effort. 

Sounds like a win to us!

Canned diced tomatoes

Menemen / shakshuka

This Mediterranean/Middle Eastern dish is a perfect use of diced tomatoes, since they make the already simple breakfast meal even simpler. 

Fry up some veggies (onion, garlic, peppers etc.) in a skillet and add a can of diced tomatoes. Allow the moisture to evaporate a little (petite diced tomatoes will have less water) then crack an egg or two on top and let it cook.  

Salsa

Fresh, homemade salsa has never been more accessible. Long gone are the days of slicing and dicing fresh tomatoes for hours just for the salsa to be devoured in minutes. Now, all that’s standing in between you and happiness is a can opener.

Turkish food

Imam bayildi (pronounced ee-mahm bahy-ul-duh) is a classic Turkish dish made with eggplants, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and olive oil.  The eggplants are first roasted until soft, then the flesh is scooped out and mixed with the onions, garlic and tomatoes. The mixture is then stuffed back into the eggplant shells and simmered in olive oil until the flavors have melded.

The name "imam bayildi" literally means "the imam fainted" in Turkish. There are several folktales about the origin of the name, but the most common one is that an imam fainted after tasting the dish for the first time.

Canned tomato puree and canned tomato sauce

Indian dishes 

Many Indian dishes use tomatoes as a base, including the kinds of dishes we’re used to having at Indian restaurants here in the United States. 

In fact, one of the most popular Indian dishes in the Western world is tikka masala, a tomato-based curry with a buttery, creamy sauce. The story goes that a Bangladeshi chef in Great Britain invented the dish because the British enjoyed having their meat served in gravy, though the validity of the story is still uncertain. 

Either way, chicken tikka masala is just one of many curries and dishes that you can use a can of tomato puree or tomato sauce for (like this creamy shahi paneer!). 

Minestrone soup

Light soups like minestrone are ideal for canned tomato sauce, as the sauce is already pretty watery and light. Tomato sauce is a good option to use if you’re going for a large volume of broth, as it won’t thicken too much or leave chunks floating in the soup like diced tomatoes or tomato paste would. 

Canned tomato paste

Soups, stews & chilis

Tomato paste is a great way to add flavor to soups. It can be used to make simple tomato soup, or it can be used to add depth and complexity to more complicated soups, such as lentil soup or minestrone. You can add tomato paste to a soup along with a can of tomato sauce, as the paste will contribute an extra depth of flavor and complexity. 

Pasta sauces

Tomato paste is a must-have ingredient for popular pasta sauces like marinara sauce, Bolognese sauce and Alfredo sauce. The paste also works well with very simple pasta dishes that don’t require a watery sauce — the paste is packed with flavor just as it is!

Pizza

You may be tempted to use tomato sauce for a pizza sauce, but you’ll thank us when you go for tomato paste instead!

Tomato paste is a key ingredient in pizza sauce, as it helps to give pizza sauce its signature roasted-tomato flavor that you wouldn’t get from a can of regular tomato sauce. It’s also much thicker and won’t release as much moisture and make the pizza crust soggy. 

There are a million more ways to use canned tomatoes, and you’ll surely end up picking up a few more along the way. These are good ideas to get you started and, hopefully, you’ll keep a few cans of the stuff stocked in your pantry for whenever you need to use them!

Enjoy!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/Squirrel_photos