Rajská omáčka is one of the most iconic Czech sauces. It’s based on a broth made from beef, root vegetables, and tomato paste. Almost every national cuisine has its own tomato gravy. However, the traditional Czech Rajská offers a uniquely rich, sweet-sour taste.
Many Czech families argue about what’s the “secret ingredient" of rajská (some people use cinnamon or grated gingerbread, for example).
There are also cooking competitions for the best rajská omáčka organized in the Czech Republic.
➜ What is Rajska sauce?
Rajská omáčka (rajská in short) is an old-fashioned Czech creamy and sweet red gravy sauce made from tomato paste, which gives it its typical full, beautiful red color.
Rajská omáčka is served warm, usually with a slice of beef and bread dumplings (knedlíky).
With its spicy and intense flavor, rajská is just the thing you need for the cold winter months.
➜ Pronunciation
I recorded a short audio clip on how to pronounce the Czech word rajská. The first word in the audio is "rajská," and the last is "rajská omáčka," which means tomato sauce.
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➜ Ingredients
We will start by making broth by cooking beef and root vegetables. It takes about 3 hours, so plan carefully. The good news here is that after all broth-related ingredients start simmering in the pot, you can forget them for the rest of the cooking.
Beef broth:
- Beef; the best cut recommended by famous Czech cooks, is top blade
- Veggies; carrots, celery root, parsley root, onion, and cloves of garlic
- Spices; bay leaves, allspice berries, black pepper berries, salt
- Water
You need the broth for making the tomato sauce, plus you’ll get the cooked beef this way, which is usually served with rajská.
Rajská sweet tomato sauce:
- Broth; made from beef and root vegetables
- Onions; finely chopped
- Tomato paste; DO NOT use tomato purée, passata, or ketchup
- Granulated sugar; for sweet taste
- All-purpose flour; to thicken the sauce
- Butter; unsalted, cold
- Vinegar; e. g. distilled white vinegar
- Pork lard; or vegetable oil
- Spices; bay leaves, allspice berries, black pepper berries
- Salt
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
➜ Make The Beef Broth with Veggies
Making beef broth is actually very easy. The hero ingredient here is the time needed until the broth is done.
- Peel and clean the vegetables (carrots, celery and parsley root, onion, cloves). Cut them into large pieces; it’s enough to halve each vegetable. Don’t bother to chop veggies finely.
- Pour the water into a big pot, add the whole piece of beef and vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer.
- Skim off the scum that accumulates on the surface. This way, you’ll get a clear broth.
- Add the spices (bay leaves, allspice, black pepper), season with salt.
- Cover with a lid and cook for about 3 hours until beef is soft and the broth rich.
- Remove the beef out of the broth, set it aside.
- Strain the finished broth into a clean pot, discard the vegetables and spices.
➜ Making Homemade Rajská from Scratch
Rajská sauce is always prepared in a separate saucepan, using the beef broth as directed.
STEP 1: Peel the onions and chop them finely. In a pot, melt lard over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and sauté until translucent. (photo 1) Stir occasionally. Add the tomato paste, fry for 1 minute while stirring. (photo 2)
STEP 2: Add the flour, fry for another 1 minute, stirring frequently. (photo 3+5)
STEP 3: After the flour is shortly fried, the base is prepared for making rajská sauce.
STEP 4: Start adding beef broth in batches. Always stir or whisk until a creamy sauce is produced. Don’t worry if some lumps remain in a pot. They will be eliminated later while straining the rajská sauce through a sift.
STEP 5: Season the sauce with salt, vinegar and sugar. Add spices. Stir, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let the sauce simmer for 20 minutes.
STEP 6: Strain the sauce through a sift in a clean pot. Discard the rests (onion, spices) got stuck in a sift.
STEP 7: Taste the sauce with salt and sugar if necessary. As the final step, add cold pieces of butter to the sauce and let them melt. Now the rajská is ready to be served!
Serve warm with sliced beef you cooked earlier in the broth. Rajská sauce pairs great with Czech dumplings as a side dish.
➜ Cook’s Tips
- When making beef broth, add spices ONLY after skimming off the scum, not before. If you added spices together with beef and veggies initially, you would discard the spices while scooping the foam floating on the surface.
- Making the broth takes the most time – count on 3 hours before the meat softens, so plan ahead. You can also prepare the broth a day before.
- Only use tomato paste for making rajská. The sauce prepared from fresh tomatoes / purée / passata is not vividly colored.
➜ FAQs:
Rajská omáčka is thickened with flour. At first, the flour should be fried a bit to get more flavor. After the water is poured over fried flour, it must be cooked for about 20 minutes. The floury taste disappears, and tomato sauce will thicken.
If you leave the sauce thickened with flour overnight, it will get even thicker. Add several spoons of water to make it creamy again when warming it up.
Rajská is normally served with a slice of beef, but it’s not the rule. Tomato sauce also tastes perfect with stuffed peppers or with meatballs.
Rajská tomato sauce is usually served with bread dumplings (houskové knedlíky), a typical Czech side dish. Pasta or rice are less common, but still a good choice.
No, classical rajská omáčka is not the same as spaghetti (or pasta) tomato sauce.
More Czech dishes:
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Rajská omáčka - Czech Style Tomato Sauce
Tap or hover to scale
Ingredients
Homemade beef broth:
- 2 large carrots peeled, halved
- 5 ounces celeriac peeld, roughly cut
- 1 medium parsley root peeled, halved
- 1 medium onion peeled, halved
- 3 cloves garlic peeled, roughly chopped
- 2 pounds beef chuck in whole
- 16 cups water
- 3 bay leaves
- 5 allspice
- 10 peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon salt
Sweet tomato sauce:
- 3 medium onions peeled, finely chopped
- 1 Tablespoon pork lard
- 1 cup tomato paste
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 5 cups beef broth
- salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 5 Tablespoons vinegar 8% acidity
- 10 peppercorns
- 5 allspice
- 1.½ Tablespoons unsalted butter cold
Instructions
Homemade beef broth:
- Clean and peel 2 large carrots, 5 ounces celeriac, 1 medium parsley root, 1 medium onion, and 3 cloves garlic. Cut each vegetable into two pieces or chop coarsely. Put the veggies and 2 pounds beef chuck into a large pot.
- Add 16 cups water - the exact amount of water depends on the size of your pot. Cover with a lid, and bring it to a boil.
- Remove the lid and collect the condensed foam forming on the broth surface with a scoop.
- Once the foam stops forming, add the spices (3 bay leaves, 5 allspice, 10 peppercorns), 1 teaspoon salt, and turn down the temperature to minimum, to a bare simmer, just a bubble or two coming up here and there. It takes about 3 hours for the meat to soften. Cover the pot with a lid so that a small gap remains on the side.
- Take the meat out of the broth and keep it warm. Strain the broth into a clean pot. Discard the vegetables and spices.
- You don’t need all the broth for Rajská sauce, you can freeze the rest once it cools down, as it will come in handy when making other broth-based recipes.
Rajská tomato sauce:
- Make ahead: Peel 3 medium onions and chop them finely.
- Melt 1 Tablespoon pork lard in a separate sauce pan and set it to medium heat.
- Add the onion and stir until it turns lightly golden brown.
- Add 1 cup tomato paste, stir about 1 minute.
- Pour in ⅔ cup all-purpose flour and stir continuously for 30 sec.
- Gradually, add 5 cups beef broth, lukewarm, while still whisking to avoid lumps.
- Add salt, ¾ cup granulated sugar, 5 Tablespoons vinegar and spices: 10 peppercorns and 5 allspice.
- Bring it to a boil turn down the temperature to a third, and simmer while stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.
- Season the tomato gravy with salt and sugar if necessary.
- Remove the pan with the sauce from the heat source and strain it through a sieve into a clean pot.
- Add 1.½ Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, to soften up the sauce. Mix with a spoon until butter melts. Do not cook anymore.
Notes
- SERVING: Place a slice of warm beef and bread dumplings on a plate. Pour the warm Rajská tomato sauce over them.
- You can garnish the dish with a sprig of parsley.
Christine Spencer says
I cannot wait to try this recipe! My grandma, aunt's and many relatives were born in the Czech republic, I grew up eating many of these dishes that my grandmother made, she passed down many recipes but for a Christmas surprise I'm making the dumplings and beef and tomato gravy for my mom and sister as my grandma passed away six years ago and would be very proud that this dish was served! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Petra says
Hello Christine, thank you for your comment, I hope "rajská omáčka" turned out well and everybody enjoyed your dish! Merry Christmas (veselé Vánoce) from the Czech Republic.
Jan says
Well described, I like the intense color of this tomato gravy!
Petra Kupská says
Thank you, Jan 🙂
Matheus Coelho says
Simply delicious, a big surprise! I don't know exactly why, but I've always loved the culture of the Czech Republic, the cities and now I've fallen in love with the cuisine. Tomorrow I will try to do "houskové knedlíky", greetings from Brazil
ps- My tomato gravy doesn't look reddish enough, but still delicious. I'm wondering why this result, tho
Petra Kupská says
Ahoj Matheus, thanks a lot for your kind comment! I believe that the Czech Republic fully deserves to be loved 🙂 Czech dishes are unique in many ways; rajská tomato sauce is one of them (a good choice, I would say). The intense color of this sauce is given by the tomato paste (not tomato puree or ketchup). Fingers crossed that the bread dumplings turn out well! Best wishes from Bohemia, Petra
Dashka says
The pork roast turned out very good again and my husband loved it. Tomorrow I am making this one for lunch ???? wish me luck.
I am so thankful for your recipes. My husband is being so spoiled since I found your recipes
Petra Kupská says
Oh, thank you for your kind comment! As always, it made me very happy 🙂
Dashka says
Btw what are we gonna do with the vegetables?
Petra Kupská says
If you mean the leftover vegetables remaining in the strainer after passing the tomato sauce, then you can discard them.
Dashka says
Thanks for your reply. It was very nice. We are cooking czech food every other day. My family loves it . Again your recipes are very well explained and very nice and accurate. Everything I made turned out perfect . My husband praised me for the.l Czech foods I make . Thanks to you . Lots of love from Canada
Petra Kupská says
I thank you for your lovely comments! I'm glad to hear that you like Czech food and that it's a success with your family and friends.
Lee says
I'm so surprised to hear this! Are the vegetables too soft and no longer tasty if eaten separately?
By the way, this recipe sounds delicious and I'd love to try it!
Petra Kupská says
After cooking for so long, the vegetables are mushy. Moreover, it has already passed all the good stuff (minerals, vitamins) into the broth. If the broth is to be made into a soup, I always grate the fresh vegetables into it (eg carrots) and let them simmer only briefly to soften.
Sarah K says
Can you use a store bought Beef Broth instead?
Petra Kupská says
Ahoj Sarah, of course, you can! Using store-bought broth will speed things up if you intend to serve tomato sauce without the beef slices.
The beef broth in the recipe is made by boiling beef and vegetables. The cooked meat then forms part of the meal. If you use store-bought broth, you can either serve the sauce without the meat or use meatballs, for example, which also pair well with the rajska gravy.
Slavka says
OMG taste like the one mom used to make. Last time I had this was 46 years ago. It is soooo good. Thank you for posting it. I wii be trying “svíčkovou” next. Těším se.
Petra Kupská says
Ahoj Slavka, thank you very much for your lovely comment! Rajska tomato soup count among the best Czech sauces 🙂 Fingers crossed that the svickova sauce turns out well too.
Dolores Arendall says
Cookbooks ???
Audrey Hanka says
Have not tried this recipe yet, but plan to do so. One question: I recall my mom and grandma grating ginger snaps into the gravy. Does that sound familiar to you? Would that take place of thickening and eliminating the flour; as of course, the flour is the thickening agent.
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com says
Ahoj Audrey, thank you for asking! Many old Czech recipes use finely grated raw potato instead of flour to thicken. Potatoes contain starch, which thickens the sauce in a naturally gluten-free way. Ginger has a very intense flavor, I don't think it is used in sauces to thicken, rather for flavor and only in small amounts.
Karen says
Hello,
The recipe works well! My grandkids gobbled up the dish (až se jim dělaly boule za ušima).
I did add gingerbread for grating = perník na strouhání = the essential element according to my mom's cooking. She sends it in her annual xmas package (together with her xmas cookies). The gingerbread contains spices that fit the taste of the sauce.
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com says
Zdravim Karen, thank you for your comment and feedback. Happy to hear the recipe was a success with your family! Yes, you can definitely add pernik - flavorings like these then vary from cook to cook. My own mom is fond of adding cinnamon 🙂
Greetings from the Czech Republic.
Erin says
Thank you Petra! I cannot wait to try this recipe!
One clarification though - your instructions in one spot say DO cover the pot to simmer broth for the three hours, and in a different spot say DO NOT cover the pot to simmer. Can you let me know which is preferred?
Thank you!!
Erin in Canada, excited to Cook Like Czechs 😀
Paul Koci says
Also try to add whole star anise and a small piece of the whole cinnamon. You'll be surprised.