How to Replace Tomato Paste in Borscht: Never Use Ketchup
Tomato paste is an important ingredient in borscht. Or rather, in the fried vegetables added to the soup.
The product is added to the carrot and onion mixture heated in a frying pan.
Thanks to tomato paste, borscht acquires a beautiful and appetizing appearance: the soup turns out bright red. Thus, the color that appears due to beets is “fixed”.
In addition, the additive makes the dish more appetizing: a slight sourness appears, which perfectly reveals the taste of other ingredients.
Now let's imagine a situation: you started making borscht and suddenly remembered that your tomato paste supplies ran out long ago. What should you do in this case?
Yulia Arkhipova, an expert in the field of cooking for the online publication Belnovosti, a chef and fourth-class baker, does not recommend replacing pasta with ketchup.
How to Replace Tomato Paste in Borscht
If you have fresh tomatoes, use them.
Peel the fruit, chop the vegetables and add the resulting pieces to the frying pan with the onions and carrots.
There is another interesting option: the paste can be replaced with tomato juice.
Just keep in mind that the volume of the drink used should be much greater than the amount of paste that you usually added when preparing borscht.
But you shouldn't add ketchup. The sauce may not be of very high quality (with a lot of dyes and various substitutes).
In this case, the borscht will not acquire an appetizing appearance and pleasant taste.