What to use instead of tomato
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Raw and diced for freshness and acidity
Mostly water with acid and glutamate. In pico de gallo or a sandwich the job is the wet, sharp bite against everything richer around it.
Cherry or grape tomatoes, halvedRan out
1 cup per 1 medium tomato
Sweeter with firmer skin, and far less juice pooling in the bowl. Usually better than a pale winter beefsteak.
Tomatillo, diced rawRan out
1:1 by weight
Sharper and greener with a slight stickiness. The salsa reads as a verde.
Red bell pepper + lime juiceRan out
1 cup diced pepper + 1 tsp lime juice per 1 medium tomato
Crunchy and sweet with no juice at all, so the acid has to come from the lime.
Canned diced tomatoes, drained hardRan out
1 cup drained per 1 medium tomato
Soft and cooked-tasting with no bite. Drain them in a sieve for 10 minutes or the salsa floods.
What doesn't work: Sun-dried tomatoes chopped into a fresh salsa. Concentrated, chewy and sweet-sour from the oil, they sit on the tongue like raisins and nothing about them reads as fresh.
Cooked down as the acid and body of a sauce or stew
As the water leaves, the sugars and glutamate concentrate, and the remaining acid keeps a rich braise from tasting flat.
Canned whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by handRan out
One 14 oz can per 4 medium fresh tomatoes
Better than most fresh tomatoes for this. More reliable acid, deeper red, and no peeling.
Tomato paste + waterRan out
2 tbsp paste + 3/4 cup water per 2 medium tomatoes, plus 1 tsp vinegar
Sweeter, thicker and much darker. The vinegar goes back in because paste has lost its brightness.
PassataRan out
3/4 cup per 2 medium tomatoes
Smooth with no pulp, so the sauce has no texture. It reduces faster, so watch it.
Roasted red peppers + red wine vinegarRan out
1 cup peppers + 1 tbsp vinegar per 2 medium tomatoes
Sweet and smoky with no tomato tang, and the sauce comes out orange. Useful in February.
What doesn't work: Ketchup as the tomato in a savoury braise. It is roughly a quarter sugar with vinegar and clove already in it, so the stew ends up sweet, sharp and tasting of the bottle.