What Cuts Acidity in Tomato Sauce? - Eat Like No One Else

Do you find tomato sauce to be too acidic for your tastes (or for your tummy). Below you will find some ideas on how to cut the acidity in your next batch of homemade tomato sauce.

A metal frying pan on the stove top with red tomato sauce that is done cooking inside.

Good homemade tomato sauce can be a foundation for so many delicious meals. Spaghetti & meatballs, pizza, and chicken parmesan just to name a few.

The problem that some people have is that tomato sauce can be too acidic. This could especially be a problem for someone struggling with acid reflux. Even if that not the issue, it could just upset your stomach.

Tomatoes are known for their acid content. What can you do? Do you have to just give it up or are there things you can try?

If I said no, this post would be over right now, but if you have already strolled down more you know that I have a lot more to say. So, yes you can cut the acidity in our homemade tomato sauce. And there are several options to do this.

Jump to:

🥕 Adding Carrots
🎃 Adding Pumpkin
🥄 Adding Sugar
🧅 Adding Caramelized Onions
➕ Adding Baking Soda
🍅 Choose Less Acidic Tomatoes

A wood box of carrots of different shades of yellow and orange as well purple at a farmer's market. A sign attached to the box says "Rainbow carrots $1.49 per pound"

🥕 Adding Carrots

When you are ready to cook your tomatoes, add in some fresh carrots. Their sweet flavor is the perfect addition to tomato sauce. You can cook them right along with the tomatoes. Just diced them up and add them in. I don't bother peeling.

A white plate with spaghetti on it topped with a tomato sauce made with tomatoes and some pumpkin puree. The plate is on a gray and white striped towel with a wood sign at the top left corner that is orange with a pumpkin on it.

🎃 Adding Pumpkin

You can do this with canned pumpkin year round but it's really special if you can get a fresh pumpkin, make the puree yourself, and then add in with your tomatoes for a delicious sauce. The pumpkin flavor really adds to the sauce without overpowering it.

RECIPE - Pumpkin Spaghetti Sauce

🥄 Adding Sugar

Simply adding sugar to tomato sauce will cover up the acidity. It's a quick option that would be easier than pumpkin or carrots. However I would rather stick to the natural sugars you find in pumpkins and carrots. Plus you aren't replacing any of the tomatoes, you are really just trying to counteract the flavor.

🧅 Adding Caramelized Onions

If you sautéed some onions for a long enough time that you caramelize them, that will add sweetness to your sauce which will help balance out the sauce. It won't add the bulk of carrots or pumpkin, but it's an alternative to just adding sugar. Plus caramelized onions taste amazing.

Caramelize the onions and add them to your finished tomato sauce.

➕ Adding Baking Soda

I have heard of some people adding baking soda to their tomato sauce. They do this because baking soda is an alkaline. This I haven't tested yet, but you would need to be careful the baking soda doesn't throw the flavor off. Speaking of flavor, I like the other options better because they do add flavor to the sauce while baking soda even if it doesn't make it taste bad, won't add any good flavor.

Red and orange Roma style paste tomatoes on a white with black surface.

🍅 Choose Less Acidic Tomatoes

Another option you have to reduce the acidity of your tomato sauce is to choose tomatoes that are less acidic. I am not saying this is a guarantee but I have noticed a lot of the orange tomatoes that I have grown are less acidic, and more sweet than the red tomato varieties. Unfortunately it can be hard to find them outside of growing them yourself or heading to the farmer's market.

If you can grow them yourself make sure to look up information on the variety before you buy plants or seeds.

RELATED - Use your tomato sauce to make our Cake Pan Pizza.