Spike in tomato prices and increased use of packaged tomato purees go hand in hand. Tomato purees are convenient and produce consistent results for pasta, restaurant-style gravies, and tadkas as well. We reviewed 4 popular tomato puree brands available online and in grocery stores for their raw tomato flavor and how delicious gravy made using these packed tomato purees tastes. After a very tangy tomatoey tasting session, Kissan Tomato Puree emerged as our Top Pick and Safal Tomato Puree came a close second.
Table of Contents
The Best Tomato Puree – A Tangy Review
Top Pick – Kissan Tomato Puree
Kissan Tomato Puree
Kissan Tomato Puree packed in the most natural tomato flavor and the dish prepared using this tomato puree was the tastiest.
MRP – Rs 25/-
Net weight – 200 grams
*Price at the time of review
Why Kissan Tomato Puree is our Top Pick?
Kissan Tomato Puree emerged as our Top Pick because it came closest to what a freshly made batch of homemade tomato puree would taste like. The flavor of the inner pulp and the outer flesh of the tomato is equally important to form an overall holistic flavor profile for a puree. During our dry tasting as well as the Mishry Secret Sauce test, the umami flavor in the tomatoes used in Kissan Puree was the tastiest.
Kissan Tomato Puree has a thinner consistency, which we thought would make a difference in the outcome of the final dish, but it did not. In fact, the gravy made using Kissan Tomato Puree was very smooth and had a lovely tomatoey tangy. Across all contenders, Kissan was the only one where the tomato flavor did not diminish even after cooking.
Kissan Tomato Puree has no added sugars, colors, or preservatives. The tomato paste content in the puree is 36.8%. 200 grams of this puree provides 64 Kcal of energy.
Kissan Tomato Puree stood out in the crowd for its fresh tomato flavor that did not die down after cooking.
Also Recommended – Safal Tomato Puree
Safal Tomato Puree
Safal Tomato Puree packed in a lot of tart tomato flavor which was retained in the gravy as well.
MRP – Rs 25/-
Net weight – 200 grams
*Price at the time of review
Why we also recommend Safal Tomato Puree
Safal Tomato Puree has a very fine tomato-flavor that you get from a homemade puree. Unlike a few packaged purees, it does not taste industrial at all. When we say ‘industrial’, we mean that it doesn’t have that coming-out-of-a-pack-loaded-with-chemicals-taste.
It was noticed during the raw tasting that Safal Tomato Puree was the thickest and had a distinct umami flavor. We liked that during the cooking stage, the tomato flavor did not plummet. The gravy made using this puree was tart, and does not feel acidic, or sharp at the back of the throat.
Safal Tomato Puree has no added colors or preservatives. The tomato paste content in the puree is 32%. Safal Tomato Puree came in very close to being our Top Pick, but Kissan trumped it by a little bit.
Our Review Process
Tomatoes are essential in any kitchen and the beautiful, tangy flavor of tomatoes is unbeatable. With the fast-paced times, readymade tomato purees are a huge hit in every home. Amongst four popular brands of tomato purees, here is how we picked the best one for you.
Who Is This Review For?
Tomato prices are always fluctuating in India and making tomato purees at home can become a little heavy on the pocket. Thanks to readymade tomato purees this is one less thing that you would worry about.
If you are a regular user of packaged tomato purees, this review will come in handy to choose the best one. This review is for all those who would like the tang of packaged tomato puree in their cooking and also for those who like the convenience of a packaged tomato puree, and do not want to get into the cumbersome job of making a puree at home from scratch.
How We Picked The Brands
We picked 4 brands of tomato purees that were available online or in local grocery stores. We picked brands that came in a 200 gram (or similar) tetra pack and were priced similarly. We did not include brands that ONLY had 500 gram-1 kg tin pack or fell into the ‘gourmet’ section.
The Brands We Picked
- Safal Tomato Puree
- Kissan Tomato Puree
- Smart Cook Tomato Puree
- Dabur Hommade Tomato Puree
The Parameters
While color, consistency, aroma, and nutrition label of all the purees were noticed and considered the main parameters for this review were –
Freshness Of The Tomatoes – How fresh was the flavor of the tomato puree? Did it have an industrial taste? Was the tanginess of tomatoes present? Which puree brings the most natural flavor to the dish?
The Taste Of Raw Tomatoes – According to a paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, the inner pulp of tomatoes had more umami taste than the outer flesh of the tomatoes. We were looking for a similar tomato seed flavor we get from a homemade tomato puree. We wanted to see which puree holds that signature tomato flavor and do the tomato seeds add a certain butteriness to the flavor profile.
The Taste Of Tomatoes In The Dish – We wanted to check if the taste of the tomatoes shines through even after being cooked in an everyday Indian gravy dish.
As the prices and net weight of all the purees was exactly the same, those factors were not considered.
What Is Umami Flavor And Why Was It Important In This Review?
We have been taught about four basic flavors since we were kids – sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. Well, here’s the fifth one – Umami. Umami flavor is often described as a savory flavor that is associated with meaty broths. Foods high in amino acid glutamate like cheese, soy sauce, mushrooms, fish sauce, gravies, broths, and TOMATOES. Yes, tomatoes! Tomatoes are one of the best plant-based sources of umami flavor. As we discussed earlier in the article, the inner pulp and seeds of tomatoes have more umami taste than the outer flesh. Gauging that in every puree was of prime importance.
How We Reviewed
We divided our review into two sections.
- Stage 1 – Raw tasting
- Stage 2 – Tasting the tomatoes in an Indian recipe (Mishry Secret Sauce)
Stage 1
For our first section, we conducted a raw tasting where our review team members wanted to test the freshness, tartness, and raw-tomato seed flavor in the puree. We wanted to see which puree replicated the flavor of tomatoes in their natural form the most. During this tasting session, we found that Kissan and Safal were the closest to the natural, fresh tomato flavor. But, this wasn’t enough as the real flavor-test would also include a curry-cooking phase.
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Our Contenders -
Ready For Raw/Dry Tasting
Stage 2 – Mishry Secret Sauce
For our Mishry Secret Sauce, we decided to cook a quick paneer gravy with a creamy base. The recipe we chose was extremely simple, quick and versatile. We wanted to notice how the tomato puree can make or break the flavor of even the easiest, foolproof gravies in Indian cooking.
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Stage 2 in progress -
Cooking the gravy
We cooked with all four purees simultaneously in four different pans. During this phase, we noticed that purees cook in almost half the time in comparison to homemade tomato purees which take a lot of time to reduce and reach a thick consistency.
For the gravy, we heated half a tablespoon of ghee in a pan, and roasted two crushed garlic cloves till they were toasty. After that we added four tablespoons of tomato puree in each pan, a pinch of sugar and salt to taste. We did not add any aromatics like jeera, cinnamon or garam masala as we did not want to mask/overpower the taste of tomatoes. Once the tomatoes were cooked, we added two tablespoons of fresh cream in the pan, stirred it lightly and added 3-4 cubes of paneer in each. Our dish was ready in under 10 minutes.
We tasted all the cream-paneer gravies side-by-side without any accompaniments for testing the flavor of tomatoes in a cooked dish. From this taste-test, it was clear that Kissan Tomato Puree would emerge as our Top Pick and Safal Tomato Puree came in a close second for its tangy tomato taste. While the gravy made using Smart Cook Tomato Puree was smooth and velvety, it was bit too much on the sweeter side. For those who like their gravies extra sweet, Smart Cook Tomato Puree could be the puree of choice for making a makhni sauce or a butter chicken gravy, but would disturb the flavor profile of a pasta or a rajma tadka.
Have you read our review of the creamiest and tastiest paneer brand?
Quick Comparison – Best Tomato Puree Review
| Brand | Price (200 ml) | Shelf Life | Tomato Paste Content | Consistency | Flavor Notes |
| Safal | Rs 25/- | 12 months | 32% | Thick | – The puree is tart but does not hit you in the back of your throat. – Safal puree was very close to the flavor of raw tomatoes. – The gravy made using this puree was very tasty. |
| Dabur | Rs 25/- | 9 months | 37% | Thick | – The tomato flavor we were looking for was lacking. – During the dry tasting we found the puree to be mildly acidic. – The gravy made using this puree lacked the tomato flavor. |
| Kissan | Rs 25/- | 10 months | 36.8% | Thin | – Kissan Tomato Puree came the closest to the taste of real, raw tomatoes. – The gravy made using this puree was the tastiest. – Holistically, the Kissan Tomato Puree stood out. |
| Smart Cook | Rs 25/- | 12 months | 37 % | Thinnest | – The tomato puree has a sweeter tone. – It has no added sugar, and yet it is the sweetest. – The gravy made using this puree was very velvety and tasty. – Good for a makhni sauce, not sure if this would be ideal for a pasta or rajma tadka. |
Results Of Our Review
After a tangy dry tasting session and wiping off bowls of the paneer dish, Kissan Tomato Puree (Top Pick) stood out for its fresh tomato flavor and the balanced outcome of the dish. Safal Tomato Puree (Also Recommended) came in second as it packed in good flavors too.
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Top Pick – Kissan Tomato Puree -
Also Recommended – Safal Tomato Puree
The Recipe We Used
Paneer In Creamy Tomato Gravy
This recipe of paneer in a creamy tomato gravy is quick, easy and comforting.
- 1 Tablespoon ghee
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 200 ml tomato puree
- 200 ml cream
- 200 gm paneer
- Salt (to taste)
- Sugar (a pinch)
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- 2 teaspoon kasoori methi (Dried fenugreek leaves)
- 1 Tablespoon ginger (julienne)
- 1 green chilli (julienne)
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In a wok add a tablespoon of ghee. Once it is warm, add the tomato puree.
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Add a pinch of salt, red chilli powder, and sugar. Cook till the tomato leaves oil on the sides.
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Add the cream. Stir and add salt according to taste.
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Add the paneer cubes and cook for 2-3 minutes.
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Add juliennes of ginger, green chillies and kasoori methi.
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Stir and serve with butter naan, rotis or rice.
Team That Worked On The Review
* If you do agree with our review, please give it a thumbs up! And, tell us which one is your favorite from this list. If you don’t, please tell us why!
* Food & Beverage is a constantly evolving segment with new products launched daily. Our endeavor here is to help shoppers buy better. If there’s a product you would like us to review tell us by clicking here.* Our reviews are unbiased and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.
* No part of this review is sponsored by any brand. All expenses were borne by us.
