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 comes from French, where it meant purified or refined.

Purées overlap to some extent 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 flavor and texture, remove toxic substances, and/or reduce their water content.

Common purées
Common purées include:

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

A purée of some sort is the basic ingredient of these dishes:

• Guacamole (avocado).

These vegetables are also often served as purées:

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

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