What is a good substitute for tomato? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 week ago by darthelmet@lemmy.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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So I have some food sensitivity issues and in particular I don't like raw tomato. They're gooey and seedy and they just make me feel kind of weird. Unfortunately there are a lot of things, especially sandwiches, which use tomato as a fairly critical part of the flavor of the dish. So just taking it out isn't ideally because it sometimes just makes the dish bland. I feel like processed tomato things like ketchup and tomato sauce don't really fulfill the same kind of role in these dishes.

Does anyone have any opinions/suggestions on what types of foods could plausibly be used as a substitute for raw tomato? It could be anywhere, but I'm thinking of things like sandwiches, salads, etc.

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[-] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 5 points 1 week ago

Sounds like the issue is texture rather than taste, so the obvious answer is cherry tomatoes because they don't have anywhere near as much pith. However, thinking about the role the tomato plays, it's kind of a juicy sweetener with some vegetative notes, so now I'm thinking maybe slices of certain green apple varieties, maybe with something very vegetal, like a leafy green, or maybe a kolrabi, or less so with some spinach or sprouts? Experiment if you have the time and money. Lots of flavors to play with.

this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025

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