Avoid Wasting Canned Tomato Paste By Making Frozen Portions To Help Dinner Prep

Every recipe seems to only call for a single spoonful or two of tomato paste. Too thick to pour, too concentrated to use up fast, too easy to forget behind the yogurt – the rest of the can usually just ends up mouldering in the fridge, oxidized and wasted before you can use it. An opened can of tomato paste will spoil within a week in the fridge – its deep brick-red color becoming dull as it oxidizes and eventually molds. It goes especially quickly if it isn't covered air tight, but a better plan is to simply portion out the tomato paste and freeze it. 

To do this, simply spoon 1 tablespoon mounds of un-used tomato paste onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, or fill each pocket of an ice cube tray, and freeze until solid. Then, transfer the cubes into a labeled freezer bag or re-use a clean takeout container. Each frozen portion will equal about 1 tablespoon — ready to be added to soups, stews, and braises without the metallic tang that hovers in a stale, half-open can. The icy paste melts quickly when added to hot food, because its frozen in small quantities, so there's no need to thaw first. 

You can use this hack with tomato purée or chipotle paste, or any other canned, concentrated condiment you typically use by the spoonful. Each frozen cube will save you time and waste later. Once you've tried this method, you'll never reach for a crusty, moldy, opened can again.

The freezer doesn't have to be a mysterious cave of stale ice cream or a graveyard of frozen pizza. With a little strategic planning, it can be a second pantry, where ingredients wait at their peak instead of spoiling in the fridge. Freezing tomato paste like this works for the same reason why freezing works to preserve almost anything — because it seriously slows down oxidation, the same chemical process that dulls color and flavor in opened cans. 

When frozen, those natural glutamates and sugars that make tomato paste taste meaty and sweet stay locked in until you reheat them, and the flavor is held in stasis. Properly frozen tomato paste can last up to a year before the flavor fades. If you used the ice cube tray method, try to get them out of the tray and into a ziplock as soon as possible to reduce the chances of freezer burn, which will impart stale aromas. If a small amount of frost does form, you can scrape it off. Be sure to lay the freezer bag flat before sealing so the cubes don't fuse together and label and date it clearly. 

Dropped into a simmering sauce to deepen the flavor or blended into a dressing, frozen tomato paste portions are especially handy for low effort weeknight cooking. It'll become a reflexive habit that makes dinner prep feel easier and more deliberate — because you're using what you already have while cutting down on food waste, emergency store runs, and impulse takeout.