Substituting for tomato sauce in cassoulet

April 27, 2023 6:37 AM

I somehow managed to not see the tomato sauce when I was buying the ingredients for this cassoulet. I've never had cassoulet, so I don't really know what it's supposed to be like. Details inside.

I have canned diced tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. I have tomato paste, and I've seen instructions for using that if you have a can. I have an unknown quantity frozen in individual dollops, so it's not my first choice for this recipe. I would love it if I could use up some of the sun-dried tomatoes, but trying to Google that leads me to substitutes for sun-dried tomatoes or recipes for tasty sauces that happen to use sun-dried tomatoes as an ingredient. I have seen online instructions for using canned diced tomatoes, but I'm wondering if combining those with the sun-dried tomatoes or some of the paste might be better.

So creative cooks of MetaFilter, assuming that acquiring a can of tomato sauce is not an option, what would you do with what I have?

posted by FencingGal to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

The sundried tomatoes will be delicious but it won't be the flavor profile of a cassoulet. Since this is already a veggie version that might not matter to you, but the bright tangy taste of sundried tomatoes will change the earthy taste of cassoulet.
posted by ojocaliente at 6:52 AM on April 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

How many cans of diced tomatoes do you have? I would put together the canned tomatoes and some of the tomato paste, and process them with a bit of water or red wine to get the amount of sauce needed.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:55 AM on April 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: I have three cans of diced tomatoes.
posted by FencingGal at 6:58 AM on April 27, 2023

You could turn the diced tomatoes into a tomato sauce really quick; dump, like, two of your three cans into a pot with one halved onion and like a half a stick of butter, and simmer that for an hour. (save one of the cans for measuring purposes.) Then fish out the onion and process what you have until it's smooth.

Use one of the empty cans of tomatoes to measure out what "one can of tomato sauce" would be from the sauce you've made, and there you are.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:04 AM on April 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

I've never made a vegan cassoulet, but I suspect the tomatoes are there for umami that you're not getting from meat and most of the umami in tomatoes comes from the interior part so the sauces mentioned above are a good idea. You might also consider adding a dash or two of soy.
posted by Runes at 7:45 AM on April 27, 2023

Best answer: Assuming something like this is what they mean by canned tomato sauce, I don't think you'd need to do anything more than blending/pureeing a can of diced tomatoes and adding a dollop or two of tomato paste to make it a bit thicker/richer. You could skip the blending/pureeing but then you'll get some small chunks of tomato in your dish which you might not want.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:56 AM on April 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I think your sun-dried tomatoes could be very good. Just blend a good handful with one tin of crushed tomatoes, and add in place of tomato sauce.

While you are at it, a half cup of dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated and blended into the tomato sauce, would probably be a good idea. The whole idea of cassoulet is over the top meatiness so a vegan version is a bit strange, but sun-dried tomatoes and dried porcinis would add a lot of the umami in a very good way. I might even try (not a fan of cassoulet).
posted by mumimor at 8:30 AM on April 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

You can just use your diced tomatoes, subbing them 1 to 1 for the tomato sauce. If you prefer your tomatoes pureed, you can puree them first. Don't add any extra water -- this recipe already has plenty of liquid in the form of the broth, and diced tomatoes already include some liquid in the can. Traditional cassoulet cooks low and slow, long enough to break down tomatoes; this recipe has a pretty fast cook time, so if you leave them unpureed, you'll get a chunkier sauce. Either way will work just fine.
posted by ourobouros at 9:12 AM on April 27, 2023

You need 15 oz. of tomato sauce, which is slightly cooked down tomato. . Use 15 oz chopped tomatoes, 1 -2 tb tomato paste, and a few sun-dried tomatoes. Simmer for 15 - 30 minutes, then blend, an immersion blender would be useful. if you odn't have a blender, just chop the sun-dried tomatoes. The recipe calls for 3 Tb olive oil. Traditional cassoulet is full of duck, sausage, and pork, and has a fair bit of fat. if it doesn't taste rich, I'd consider adding a bit more, maybe some good vegan butter or oil from sun-dried tomatoes. Traditional recipes always have a lot of variation, so you have room to adjust it.
posted by theora55 at 9:39 AM on April 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for all of the ideas. I'm sure most of them would have worked. I ended up using Dip Flash's suggestion of one can of diced tomatoes and two dollops of tomato paste. I decided not to puree the tomatoes. I was very happy with the results.
posted by FencingGal at 6:55 AM on April 28, 2023 [1 favorite]