a cooked food, especially a vegetable or fruit, that has been put through a sieve, blender, or the like.
a soup made with ingredients that have been puréed.
1700–10; < French, noun use of feminine past participle of purer to strain, literally, make pure; see pure
A puree is a very smooth, crushed or blended food — like applesauce or mashed potatoes. To puree something is to blend, chop, mash, or strain a food until it reaches this soft consistency. If it tastes like mush, then it's a puree! You might think of purees as baby food, and it's true that a vegetable or fruit puree is the perfect first food for a baby to eat before she has teeth. There are plenty of things that adults like to puree too, though, like chickpeas (to make hummus) and avocados (to make guacamole). Puree is from the French purée, "pea soup."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Finished with the vivid pea purée and crispy toppings, the whole thing tasted far more luxurious than its pantry origins would suggest.
From Salon ● May 12, 2026
A can of pumpkin purée for making pies on Thanksgiving is $5 on the American food store website, and it’s difficult to find a turkey.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
“It’s sparkling water, sugar-free pineapple, sugar-free peach, sugar-free vanilla, raspberry purée with a fresh lime.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
Mango purée is especially cheap right now, driven by a good harvest in India.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025
Tender freshwater shrimp garnished with cream and rose leaves, devilled barley pearls in acorn purée, apple and carrot chews, marinated cabbage stalks steeped in creamed white turnip with nutmeg.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
You can also make a puree using two parts oil to one part garlic.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
“You would be surprised by how many ingredients you can turn into a syrup, puree, paste or concentrate,” Rajendran says.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2026
In the course of the 20th century, tomatoes became ubiquitous enough in Egyptian cuisine to make “salsa” a usual word for sauce and, more specifically, tomato puree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
A green pouch advertised as broccoli-pear might turn out to be little more than pear puree.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024
For dinner we had a woodcock with souffle potatoes and puree de marron, a salad, and zabaione for dessert.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
On Saturday, HiPP recalled its entire range of jarred purées sold in Spar supermarkets in Austria, saying consuming them many be potentially "life-threatening".
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026
That’s what the creator of the chain Swig calls spiking Coke, Mountain Dew or Dr Pepper with fruit purées and flavored creams, served in plastic cups stuffed with pebble ice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
Into the cream base, he purées whole croissants to produce Morning in Paris, swirled with raspberry jam; he blends bananas and Nilla Wafers to make Banana Pudding.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
In the practice known as baby-led weaning, babies skip purées to start with table foods from the get-go.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 10, 2022
Vegetable purées may be prepared in the same way.
From Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties With Fifty Illustrations of Original Dishes by Hill, Janet McKenzie
“I was on a tube feeder then a puréed diet for a couple months. Then speech and swallow therapy. Then a vocal coach.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
But demand has grown in recent decades as scientists have trumpeted the fruit’s health benefits and as packaged forms — frozen, puréed, freeze-dried, powdered — have made it more accessible.
From New York Times ● May 12, 2023
Superkhana has always reserved some of its housemade achar in puréed form in the refrigerator since opening almost four years ago.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2023
Then, the vegetables and broth are puréed together.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 16, 2023
Plain, canned, puréed pumpkin can serve as a treat, but not spiced pumpkin pie filling.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
This time-saving hummus recipe calls for soaking dried chickpeas overnight and puréeing them with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and a little bit of ice water.
From Salon ● May 6, 2022
Okara is the sediment left over after puréeing soybeans to make soy milk, and it is very perishable.
From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2021
You can use fresh or frozen berries for this; if frozen, thaw and retain the juice before puréeing.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 20, 2021
Finally, after puréeing, the soup is strained through a fine sieve and the seasonings are adjusted.
From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2019
He last wrote about a neuroscientist who has made groundbreaking discoveries by puréeing brains.
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2019
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
