Oncu Guide: Tomato & Pepper Pastes Done Right

If Turkish food has a secret ingredient, it is salca: the deep red tomato and pepper pastes that start almost every soup, stew and pilaf. And in Turkey, the brand most associated with salca is Oncu, a Gaziantep producer that has turned sun-ripened tomatoes and peppers into concentrated paste for decades. For UK cooks, understanding the Oncu shelf is the quickest upgrade you can make to your Turkish cooking.

Tomato Paste: The Everyday Workhorse

Oncu tomato paste (domates salcasi) is double-concentrated, far denser and fruitier than the small tins sold in British supermarkets. A single tablespoon colours and flavours a whole pot of lentil soup, menemen, kofte stew or bulgur pilaf. It comes in sizes from a 370 g jar for occasional cooks through the popular 700 g and 830 g jars up to 1650 g and even 4.3 kg tins for big families and food businesses. Once opened, keep it in the fridge with a thin film of olive oil on top and it lasts for months.

Pepper Paste: The Flavour That Makes Food Taste Turkish

Biber salcasi is where Turkish cooking really parts ways with everything else. Made from red capia and chilli peppers cooked down to a thick paste, it adds sweetness, smokiness and body that tomato paste alone cannot. Oncu makes it mild (tatli) and hot (aci), in 370 g and 700 g jars with catering sizes beyond. Use it in kisir, lahmacun topping, adana-style kofte, red lentil soup and marinades for chicken or lamb. If you only buy one jar, the mild 700 g is the most versatile choice; heat lovers can go straight to the hot version.

The Mixed Paste Shortcut

Cannot decide? Oncu's mixed paste combines tomato with mild and hot pepper in one jar, giving a balanced base that works in almost any dish. It is a clever option for smaller kitchens where three open jars would be a waste, and the 1600 g mixed tin suits households that cook Turkish food daily.

How to Cook With Salca Properly

The single most important technique: fry the paste. Add it to hot oil or butter with your onions and stir for one to two minutes until it darkens and smells sweet before adding any liquid. This blooms the flavour and removes the raw edge. Standard dosing is one tablespoon of paste per four servings of soup or stew, and a half-and-half blend of tomato and pepper paste is the classic Turkish home ratio.

Beyond the Paste Jar

Oncu's range rewards exploring further: genuine isot chilli flakes from Urfa for cig kofte and eggs, pomegranate sauce for salads and kisir, sun-dried peppers and aubergines ready for stuffing with rice, plus naturally cured black olives in every size from 3XS to XL for the breakfast table. You can order the whole Oncu line-up from Turkish Online Market with UK-wide delivery, from single jars to the big catering tins.