Crushed Tomatoes substitute

Best substitute

Whole Peeled Tomatoes, Hand-Crushed

Use 1 can for every can

Best for any recipe calling for crushed tomatoes, without exception

Needs a tweakLikely in your cupboard

Open a can of whole peeled tomatoes and crush them with your hand in the bowl. That is the same product, can for can, and the whole-peeled cans are usually the better fruit. Diced tomatoes work too, but give them 10-15 minutes longer because the cubes are firmed to hold their shape.

Other crushed tomatoes substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Diced Tomatoes
Needs a tweak
Use 1 can for every can
The same tomatoes cut into cubes and firmed with calcium chloride so they keep their shape, which is exactly the property you need to work around.
What changes
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
chilli, soups and stews where cubes of tomato are welcome, when the sauce will cook for at least 40 minutes anyway, recipes you can blend at the end
Taste
similar
Texture
chunkier
Covers
Moisture & hydration
Acid
Umami & savoury depth
Browning & colour
Calcium chloride is the single fact that explains every complaint about this swap: the cubes are engineered not to collapse.
3Passata or Tomato Puree
Needs a tweak
Use 1 can for every can
Sieved, smooth uncooked or lightly cooked tomato.
What changes
It brings the same water and the same tomato flavour and none of the pieces.
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
marinara, pizza sauce and any sauce meant to be smooth, when the recipe would have been blended at the end anyway, children or anyone who picks lumps of tomato out
Taste
similar
Texture
smoother
Covers
Moisture & hydration
Acid
Umami & savoury depth
Browning & colour
For a pizza sauce this is not a compromise but an improvement, since you were going to want it smooth anyway.
4Tomato Paste + Water
Needs a tweak
⅓ cup + ⅔ cup water
Tomato paste is crushed tomatoes with most of the water boiled out, so putting water back is genuinely most of the way there.
What changes
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
when a 6 oz can of paste is the only tomato in the house, chilli and braises, where deep cooked-tomato flavour suits the dish, scaling a sauce up when you have run short of the canned tomatoes
Taste
deeper, sweeter
Texture
smoother
Covers
Moisture & hydration
Umami & savoury depth
Browning & colour
Misses
Acid — not covered
This is the swap most often done wrong, and the mistake is almost never the flavour - it is using the paste undiluted.
5Tomato Sauce (canned)
You'll taste it
Use 1 can for every can
In the US, canned tomato sauce is a thin cooked puree, often already carrying salt and sometimes onion, garlic and herbs.
What changes
That seasoning is the part to watch.
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariandairy-free
Best for
smooth sauces where a little added seasoning does no harm, when tomato sauce is what is stacked in the cupboard, baked dishes such as lasagne, where the sauce sits between layers
Taste
saltier, seasoned
Texture
thinner
Covers
Moisture & hydration
Acid
Umami & savoury depth
Browning & colour
The naming is the trap here: American canned tomato sauce is an ingredient, while British and Australian shoppers reaching for something called tomato sauce will find ketchup.
6Fresh Tomatoes, Blitzed and Simmered
You'll taste it
Use 2 lb for every 28 oz can
A genuinely good sauce and a different one.
What changes
Fresh tomatoes have far less concentrated flavour than canned and a lot more water to drive off.
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free
Best for
high summer, when the tomatoes are actually ripe, light, fresh-tasting pasta sauces, when there is no can in the house at all
Taste
lighter, sweeter
Texture
looser
Covers
Moisture & hydration
Acid
Browning & colour
Misses
Umami & savoury depth — not covered
Peeling is optional in a rustic sauce and worth it in a smooth one - drop them in boiling water for 30 seconds and the skins slip off.

Don’t use these

Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Not for this
Intensely savoury and almost completely dry, which is the opposite of what crushed tomatoes are for. They are a seasoning, not a base.

Check your case

Does the finished dish need visible pieces of tomato, or a smooth sauce?

Chilli, stew, a braise, soup or shakshuka - the tomato should still read as pieces.
Open a can of whole peeled tomatoes and squeeze them apart with your hand in the bowl, or pulse them two or three times. That is literally what crushed tomatoes are. Diced tomatoes also work but stay in cubes far longer, so allow 10-15 extra minutes.
Jump to Whole Peeled Tomatoes, Hand-Crushed or Diced Tomatoes
A smooth sauce - marinara, pizza sauce, or a pasta sauce you would blend anyway.
Passata or canned tomato puree is the better tool here and needs no crushing at all. Use it can for can and simmer as written.
Jump to Passata or Tomato Puree or Tomato Sauce (canned)
All you have is a small can of tomato paste.
Paste is roughly three times as concentrated, so putting the water back is the whole job: 1/3 cup paste plus 2/3 cup water per cup of crushed tomatoes. Fry the paste in the pan's hot oil for a minute or two first, until it darkens to brick red - that step takes the tinny edge off.
Jump to Tomato Paste + Water
You have ripe fresh tomatoes and no cans at all.
It works, but it is a lighter, sweeter, thinner sauce rather than the same one. Reckon on about 2 lb (900 g) of ripe plum tomatoes per 28 oz can, and 15-20 minutes longer in the pan.
Jump to Fresh Tomatoes, Blitzed and Simmered
You are canning tomatoes, or making a salsa to seal in jars.
Do not change anything. The tomato product, the added bottled lemon juice or citric acid, and the proportions are all part of what makes the jar safe. Follow a current tested recipe exactly - see the safety note below.

Start from two questions rather than from what tastes closest, because every option here is a tomato. First: does the dish need visible pieces? If yes, whole peeled tomatoes crushed by hand or diced tomatoes given extra time. If no, passata or puree, and you have saved yourself a step. Second: how much water is in what you are holding? Crushed tomatoes are mostly water, so anything more concentrated - paste, sun-dried, tomato powder - needs that water put back before it can be the base of a sauce at all.

Don’t substitute crushed tomatoes here

When to keep looking rather than swap

Canning tomatoes, or making a salsa or pasta sauce to seal in jars.
Tomatoes sit right at the edge of the acidity that keeps a sealed jar safe, which is why every tested recipe specifies a stated amount of bottled lemon juice or citric acid per jar. Changing the tomato product, the acid or the proportions changes whether the jar is safe, and Clostridium botulinum gives you no warning by smell or taste.
Instead. Follow a current tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation exactly, including the bottled lemon juice or citric acid, and substitute nothing.
Using ketchup, a jar of finished pasta sauce, or salsa can for can in a recipe you are going to season yourself.
Those are finished dishes. Sugar, vinegar, onion, garlic, herbs and a lot of salt are already in them, so you end up seasoning a seasoned sauce - and once the sugar is in, it does not come back out.
Instead. If ketchup is truly all there is, use 1/4 cup ketchup plus 3/4 cup water per cup of crushed tomatoes, leave out every bit of the recipe's sugar and salt, and taste before adding any.
Spooning tomato paste in straight from the can, spoon for spoon.
Paste has about three times the concentration and almost none of the water the recipe is counting on. The pan runs dry, the sauce catches on the bottom, and the flavour goes flat, sweet and tinny.
Instead. Dilute it: 1/3 cup paste plus 2/3 cup water per cup of crushed tomatoes, and fry the paste in oil for a minute first.
A raw dish - bruschetta, a fresh salsa, a tomato salad, a caprese.
Crushed tomatoes are cooked and canned. Raw tomato dishes exist for the raw tomato, and canned pulp tastes stewed and looks like sauce however you season it.
Instead. There is no swap here. Use fresh tomatoes, or cook the canned ones into a warm sauce and serve that on the bread instead.

What is Crushed Tomatoes?

Crushed Tomatoes is canned tomato pulp that sits between diced and pureed: soft broken pieces suspended in their own thin juice, sold mainly in 14.5 oz and 28 oz cans and used as the tomato base of sauces, chilli and braises.

Cooking tips

Whole peeled tomatoes crushed in your hand are the same thing as canned crushed tomatoes, and those cans usually hold the better fruit. This is the swap to reach for first.
Fry tomato paste in the pan's hot oil for 1-2 minutes until it darkens to brick red before any liquid goes in. That step is what takes the raw, tinny edge off it.
Diced tomatoes keep their cubes because they are firmed with calcium chloride, so give them 10-15 minutes longer or pulse the can before it goes in the pan.
Read the label on canned tomato sauce before using it as crushed. If salt, sugar, onion or garlic are listed, hold the recipe's salt back until you have tasted.
A 28 oz can is about 3 1/2 cups, so half of one is 1 3/4 cups - exactly what is in a small 14.5 oz can.
Out of season, a can beats a fresh tomato. Cans are packed from ripe summer fruit, while a pale winter tomato has very little flavour to give a sauce.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for crushed tomatoes?

A can of whole peeled tomatoes, crushed with your hand in the bowl or pulsed two or three times in a blender. That is the same product one step earlier in the factory, so it is a can-for-can swap with nothing to correct. Diced tomatoes are the next best, as long as you allow them 10-15 minutes longer to break down.

Can I use diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes?

Yes, can for can, with one correction: diced tomatoes are treated with calcium chloride so the cubes hold their shape, so they will not soften on crushed tomatoes' timing. Either give them 10-15 extra minutes of simmering, or pulse the can two or three times in a blender before it goes in the pan.

How much tomato paste and water equals a can of crushed tomatoes?

Use 1/3 cup tomato paste plus 2/3 cup water for each cup of crushed tomatoes. A whole 6 oz can of paste is about 2/3 cup, so with 1 1/3 cups of water it makes about 2 cups - a little more than a 14.5 oz can. Fry the paste in the pan's oil for a minute or two first, until it darkens to brick red.

Can I use tomato sauce or passata instead of crushed tomatoes?

Yes, can for can, and for a smooth sauce like marinara or pizza sauce it is arguably better. Both are thinner than crushed, so simmer uncovered about 10 minutes longer. Canned tomato sauce is often already salted and sometimes seasoned with onion and garlic, so read the label and cut the recipe's salt by about 1/4 tsp per cup.

What is the difference between crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato sauce and tomato paste?

They differ by how much water has been taken out and whether any pieces are left. Thinnest to thickest: tomato juice, canned tomato sauce, passata, crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, then tomato paste, which is at least 24% tomato solids. Crushed tomatoes are the only one of them with soft pieces still in it, and that texture is usually why a recipe asks for them.

How many cups are in a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes?

About 3 1/2 cups, or 795 g. A 14.5 oz can holds about 1 3/4 cups, so half a large can and one small can come to the same amount. This is worth knowing because most swaps on this page are measured by volume rather than by can.

Can I use fresh tomatoes instead of canned crushed tomatoes?

Yes, with about 2 lb (900 g) of ripe plum or Roma tomatoes per 28 oz can, cored and briefly blitzed. Expect to simmer 15-20 minutes longer to drive off the extra water, and add 1 tbsp of tomato paste if you have it, since fresh tomatoes have much less of the concentrated savoury depth canning provides. Out of season, the can is the better tomato.

Can I substitute a different tomato product when canning tomatoes or salsa?

No. Tomatoes sit at the edge of the acidity that keeps a sealed jar safe, which is why tested recipes specify a set amount of bottled lemon juice or citric acid per jar. Changing the tomato product, the acid or the proportions changes whether the jar is safe, and botulism gives no warning by smell or taste. Follow a current tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation exactly.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Crushed Tomatoes substitute

Other crushed tomatoes substitutes

2Diced Tomatoes

3Passata or Tomato Puree

4Tomato Paste + Water

5Tomato Sauce (canned)

6Fresh Tomatoes, Blitzed and Simmered

Sun-Dried Tomatoes