Shoutout to the guy who told me to freeze my leftover tomato paste

I used to buy those little cans of tomato paste for recipes and then throw half of it away because I never knew what to do with the rest. Last month I was making chili and only needed two tablespoons from a whole can. A buddy at work said just scoop the rest onto a piece of wax paper in tablespoon sized blobs and freeze them. I did that on a Sunday night and now I've got four little frozen tomato paste discs sitting in a baggie in my freezer. Used one last night for a quick spaghetti sauce and it worked perfectly. No more wasting money on a full can when I only need a little bit. Has anyone else found a weird trick for saving those random leftover ingredients?

2 comments

2 Comments

hollym8221d ago

Did you try the same thing with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce? That's my go to trick. I buy the little can, puree the whole thing in a blender, then pour it into an ice cube tray. Once they're frozen I pop them out and keep them in a freezer bag. Each cube is about a tablespoon. I use them for soups, chili, marinades, whatever. Saves me from having a half used can of peppers sitting in the fridge going bad. Works way better than I thought it would.

janac5121d ago

Feel you on the tomato paste thing. I waste so many half used cans of stuff. The chipotle trick sounds genius though. I usually just toss the can in the fridge and forget about it until it grows something weird. Freezing in cubes is so much smarter. I'm gonna try that with some leftover coconut milk too, that stuff always goes bad before I use it all.