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A lot of things get interesting if you substitute for an ingredient, but I'm trying to beat a psychological barrier.

I have a friend with a strange fad - he will not eat anything red. He is quite sensible about this, and if you cook a meal using tomatoes he will eat it providing that the finished product is not red - like bolognese sauce finishes up brown, for example. And he must not see the tomatoes before they are cooked!

But it gets taxing trying to find substitutes for tomatoes when they are so commonplace in many dishes. So any help with this problem would be appreciated.

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5 Answers

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What about trying green tomatoes? Or using and alfredo sauce or cheese sauce instead of a traditional pasta sauce.

While green tomatoes are generally fried or used to make salsa (they are not ripe tomatoes),

I'm wondering if there is a way you could make a tomato sauce out of them

Here's a link with a recipe to green tomato sauce.

If that doesn't work, I'd try avoiding tomato sauce and make things with a variety of different sauces and gravies that are not red.

cooking without tomatoes, esp. red tomatoes would be hard in my house, but I have a feeling its doable.

http://www.divinacucina.com/code/greentomato.html

Mooch

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It's a nice idea, but nobody sells green tomatoes around here - you have to grow them. My mother had a great recipe for green tomato chutney. I've seen special green tomato varieties sold in Italy for use in salads - unfortunately it is too far away to go shopping! – klypos♦ Oct 15 at 17:50
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People use tomatoes to make the dish somewhat sour.So you can use some substitutes like Dry mango powder or vinegar.You can soak some tamarind in water & put a small amount of that water in vegetables while cooking.

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Would you believe I tried the mango powder, and everybody liked it - but anything I cooked with it gave ME a headache soon after eating! Thanks for trying. I'll look for tamarinds, but I think I'll have to be careful with them, too. – klypos♦ Oct 15 at 17:57
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This may be an unconventional answer, but what about using food coloring to turn everything brown and puree the tomatoes so there are no chunks? You said it was psychological! Afterall, food dye is used commercially to turn a lot of fruit/veggies a pretty red color in the first place. Does he buy the green & purple ketchup they sell for kids? BTW, this is the funniest thing I've heard of when it comes to strange eating habbits. Thanks for the new story to tell. :)

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We've tried the food colors - it let him eat baked beans for the first time - he didn't like them much! Unfortunately, I haven't seen that colored ketchup - we're in England, they don't sell it here. He uses "brown sauce", which is a rather English thing. I'll see if my wife can get some of that ketchup in NJ next week on business! – klypos♦ Oct 16 at 13:05
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Check your grocery store for yellow tomatoes.

If your friend doesn't mind if the sauce is orange just add some cream/milk/yogurt/cheese to his portion to make the dish more orange.

You could also try cooking with tomatillos(for a much more tangy flavor).

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Yellow is OK, orange is too close to red. Gravy browning (caramel) works in a lot of cases. We don't get tomatillos here, sounds like a nice idea if we could. Yellow tomatoes are very hard to find, too. Just transatlantic differences. – klypos♦ Oct 16 at 15:30
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I don't know if they are available in the UK, but have you tried tomatillos? You could also use alfredo or pesto sauce for pasta.

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