Many curry recipes need tomatoes. And many times when we are making a curry, we have the option of using chopped or puréed tomatoes. Now unless there is store bought tomato in the kitchen, we are more likely to use chopped tomatoes instead of going through the trouble of making a purée first.
The question is, did we make the healthier choice?
When making a tomato based curry, there are times when tomatoes need to be cooked in oil for a while. For such cooking, unless the recipe calls for chopped tomatoes only, choosing a homemade tomato purée may be the right way to go. These are the reasons:
1. Tomato Purée Uses Fewer Tomatoes
If your curry recipe needs two medium-sized tomatoes when used as chopped, you may be able to get the same tomato consistency in the sauce by using homemade purée of just one tomato.
2. Puree Cooks Faster
Chopped tomatoes being cooked in oil need to be broken down before they get the consistency required for the curry. In comparison, tomato purée will cook faster. Actually way faster.
3. Tomato Purée Needs Less Oil To Cook
Chopped tomatoes tend to stick to the pan while cooking. To counter that, you end up using more oil. However, sticking to the pan is much less of a problem when tomato purée is used. It is obvious, when you use tomato purée for a curry, you will use a lesser amount of cooking oil.
4. Better Sauce
When tomato purée is used in a curry instead of chopped tomatoes, you get the sauce with a better consistency.
Homemade Is The Key
When I say it is better, I am talking about fresh homemade tomato purée, and not store bought.
And again, there are recipes that work better with chopped tomatoes only. For those, ignore this article.
Try this idea, and share your experience. Thanks.
Happy Cooking.