Measuring Tomatoes—How Many Are In A Pound? - The Spruce Eats

When your recipe requires a pound or a cup of tomatoes, it's helpful to know how many you'll need before you start cooking. Many recipes also call for canned tomatoes, and if you only have fresh ones on hand, it's essential to know the equivalents for different can sizes. Fortunately, there are quick and easy methods for converting various forms of tomatoes.

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Tomato Equivalents by Weight

There are many varieties of tomatoes available, and they can often be interchanged in recipes. However, since tomatoes come in various sizes, a kitchen scale is invaluable when a recipe calls for tomatoes by weight. If you don't have a scale, our chart will help you determine how many tomatoes to buy or pick from your garden. It's a good idea to have an extra tomato or two on hand if the ones available seem small. Generally, one serving of tomatoes is equivalent to 1/2 to 1 pound of fresh tomatoes.

Whole Tomatoes	Average Weight
1 large tomato	just under 1 pound
3 medium-sized globe tomatoes	1 pound
4 large Roma tomatoes	1 pound
8 small plum or Roma tomatoes	1 pound
15 to 20 cherry tomatoes	1 pound

Converting Tomato Weight to Cups

How you process whole tomatoes yields different amounts of the finished product. For instance, you'll need twice as many tomatoes for a purée than is required for the same volume of chopped tomatoes.

Fresh Tomatoes	Volume Once Processed
1 pound	1 1/2 cups chopped
1 pound	3 cups puréed
2 1/2 pounds	3 cups chopped and drained
2 1/2 pounds	2 1/2 cups seeded, chopped, and cooked

Canned Tomato Equivalents

Perhaps you made a last-minute decision to cook a dish that calls for canned tomatoes, and you only have fresh tomatoes in the fridge. Or the recipe calls for cups of tomatoes, and you need to use canned. Not to worry because the conversions are relatively simple:

Canned Tomatoes	Fresh Tomatoes
1 cup	1 1/2 cups fresh, chopped, cooked
1 (14.5-ounce) can	5 to 6 small tomatoes, or about 1 pound
1 (16-ounce) can	2 cups undrained, 1 cup drained
1 (28-ounce) can	3 cups undrained, 2 1/2 cups drained
1 (35-ounce) can	4 cups undrained, 3 cups drained

Tomato Sauce and Paste Conversions

Fresh tomatoes are very juicy. To make tomato sauce, you'll need to cook off a lot of that liquid, and tomato paste is even more concentrated and thicker. In reverse, if you need to transform tomato sauce or paste into a fresh tomato substitute, you'll need to add water.

1 cup firmly packed chopped fresh tomatoes	1/2 cup tomato sauce plus 1/2 cup water
1 cup tomato sauce	1/2 cup of tomato paste plus 1/2 cup water

Selecting the Best Tomatoes

Today's supermarkets and gardens offer a wide variety of tomatoes—cherry, grape, yellow, heirloom, vine-ripened, Campari, Kumato, beefsteak, and Roma, to name just a few. Regardless of which you choose, it's important to know what to look for to ensure you're getting the best quality. There are three key ways to determine whether a tomato is worth buying: appearance, feel, and smell.

First, look for tomatoes with a deep, bright color. "Vine-ripened" tomatoes may be your best bet, as most tomatoes are harvested while still green and left to ripen during transport, often resulting in a pale, bland-tasting fruit. Also, check for blemishes such as black spots�they may seem unimportant but could signal that the inside is rotting.

Next, hold the tomato–you want it to feel heavy in the hand. A tomato with a bit of weight is typically ripe and pleasingly juicy inside. Then give it a gentle squeeze. How much give is there? A perfect tomato should have a bit of resistance but not feel rock-hard. Of course, you also don't want it to be a pile of mush.

The last step is to take a whiff. If you don't smell anything, you probably won't taste anything either. The best options are tomatoes with a strong, earthy, and sweet aroma.

Tomatoes packaged in plastic wrap or containers make it impossible to touch or smell them. Whenever possible, avoid buying pre-packaged tomatoes. If they're your only option, do the best you can.

Tomato Cooking Tips and Hints