Puree

Purée and (more rarely) mash are general terms for food, usually vegetables or legumes, that have been ground, pressed, and/or strained to the consistency of a soft paste or thick liquid. Purées of specific foods are often known by specific names, e.g. mashed potatoes or apple sauce. The term is of French origin, where it meant in Ancient French (13th century) purified or refined.

Purées overlap with other dishes with similar consistency, such as thick soups, creams (crèmes) and gravies — although these terms often imply more complex recipes and cooking processes. Coulis (French for "strained") is a similar but broader term, more commonly used for fruit purées. The term is not commonly used for paste-like foods prepared from cereal flours, such as gruel or muesli; nor with oily nut pastes, such as peanut butter. The term paste is often used for purées intended to be used as an ingredient, rather than eaten.

Purées can be made in a blender, or with special implements such as a potato masher, or by forcing the food through a strainer, or simply by crushing the food in a pot. Purées generally must be cooked, either before or after grinding, in order to improve flavour and texture, remove toxic substances, and/or reduce their water content.

Common purées

Common purées include:

• Applesauce.
• Bisque (shellfish).
• Champ.
• Ful medames (fava beans).
• Hummus (chickpea).
• Legume soups such as Pea soup, bean soup, lentil soup.
• Purée Mongole (a mixed pea and tomato soup).
• Mashed potatoes
• Tomato purée (see also Tomato paste).
• Pimento (Spanish Olives)
• Mango purée

These vegetables are also often served as purées:

• Arracacha
• Cassava
• Pumpkin
• Rutabaga
• Squash, Buttersquash, etc..

See also

• Gruel
• Mash
• Muesli
• Polenta
• Pesto
• Red bean paste
• Peanut butter
• Potato masher

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