List of food pastes facts for kids

Korean denjang, a fermented bean paste

Japanese miso, a fermented bean paste

This is a list of notable food pastes. A food paste is a semi-liquid colloidal suspension, emulsion, or aggregation used in food preparation or eaten directly as a spread. Pastes are often spicy or aromatic, prepared well in advance of actual usage, and are often made into a preserve for future use. Common pastes are curry pastes, fish pastes, some fruit preserves, legume pastes and nut pastes. Purées, however, are food pastes made from already cooked ingredients, as in the case of cauliflower purée, or raw, as in the case of apple purée.

Food pastes

Fish and seafood

Lengkare shrimp paste in Lombok Island, Indonesia

A tub of uncured fish surimi ready for finish-processing

• Fish paste – prepared from fish parts through fermentation

• Anchovy paste

• Gentleman's Relish

• Muria – concentrated garum (fermented fish sauce) evaporated down to a thick paste with salt crystals was called muria; it would have been rich in protein, amino acids, minerals and B vitamins.
• Jakoten
• Ngapi
• Pissalat
• Prahok

• Shrimp paste – made from fermented ground shrimp, either from fresh shrimp or dried ones, with the addition of salt. Prepared shrimp paste often has oil, sugar, garlic, chili, and other spices added.

• Saeu-jeot

• Surimi – refers to a paste made from fish or other meat and also refers to a number of Asian foods that use surimi as their primary ingredients

• Kamaboko

Fruit and vegetable

Tomato paste

• Àmàlà – a Nigerian specialty paste made using yams, it is thick and brown
• Baba ghanoush – an eggplant (aubergine) based paste
• Date paste – used as a pastry filling
• Funge de bombo – a manioc paste used in northern Angola, and elsewhere in Africa
• Guava paste
• Hilbet – a paste made in Ethiopia and Eritrea from legumes, mainly lentils or faba beans, with garlic, ginger and spices
• Hummus – made from chickpeas with the addition of tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic
• Moretum
• Pesto
• Quince cheese
• Ssamjang – a Korean sesame- and bean-based paste used as a sauce on meat
• Tapenade – made from olives ground with anchovies or capers, spices and olive oil
• Tomato paste – made from boiling tomatoes until they form a thick paste which is stored for later use in soups, sauces and stews

Grain

• Farina
• Millet paste – consumed by the Fula people in the Sahel and West Africa, it is a main ingredient in nyiiri, a common Fula dish that is prepared using millet paste and a thick sauce
• Pamonha – a traditional Brazilian paste made from fresh corn and milk
• Polenta
• Mealy pop or bogobe – prepared from ground grain, usually maize or millet, and often fermented before cooking

Instant soup

Erbswurst is a traditional instant pea soup from Germany in a condensed paste

• Erbswurst

Legume

A pancake filled with red bean paste

• Black bean paste
• Cheonggukjang
• Doubanjiang
• Doenjang
• Fermented bean paste – made from ground soybeans which are then fermented
• Miso
• Mung bean paste
• Red bean paste
• Sweet bean paste
• Tauco
• Tương
• Yellow soybean paste

Meat

Pâté spread atop bread

• Chopped liver
• Pâté – finely chopped, finely ground or pureed highly seasoned meat, prepared using beef, pork, liver, or animal organs
• Pheasant paste
• Potted meat food product

Nut and seed

Tahini

• Almond butter
• Almond paste
• Cashew butter
• Lotus seed paste
• Marzipan – made from almonds, with the addition of sugar and sometimes egg whites, it is used as a filling for confections, or hardened to serve as is
• Peanut butter
• Peanut paste – a product of peanuts and is used as an ingredient in sauces, baked goods and breakfast cereals, among others
• Plumpy'nut
• Satsivi – a Georgian specialty made from walnuts, it is used unsweetened as a bread dip, or sweetened as a filling in a baklava-like pastry
• Sunflower butter
• Tahini – made from ground sesame seeds

Spices and herbs

Herbs

Red kroeung paste

• Kroeung

Spicy

Phanaeng curry paste is fried with coconut cream to make the curry more creamy in flavor

• Biber salçası
• Chili pepper paste
• Curry paste
• Ginger garlic masala
• Gochujang
• Harissa
• Jeow bong
• Phanaeng curry paste
• Recado rojo
• Sambal
• Ssamjang
• Yuzukoshō

Sweet

• Cookie butter
• Fondant – a basic sugar paste used as an intermediary in the production of candies and icings

Yeast extracts

Marmite spread on toasted bread

Yeast extracts, usually as byproduct from brewing beer, are made into food pastes, usually dark-brown in color.

• AussieMite
• Cenovis
• Guinness Yeast Extract
• Marmite
• Marmite (New Zealand)
• Oxo
• Promite
• Vegemite
• Vitam-R