Sunday, October 9, 2011

Freezing Tomatoes (SCD, GFCF)

There's nothing like the taste of homegrown tomatoes. The cruel irony is that just when you want that flavor the most, in your nice warm bowl of tomato soup when the weather is cold, there are no good tomatoes to be found. Several years ago a neighbor had a bumper crop of tomatoes. He told me to blanch them and freeze them. I took the tomatoes and the advice. I was amazed at how well the frozen tomatoes had retained their wonderful flavor. I was determined to have a good batch put away this summer. Eddie started some tomato plants this spring but the 100 plus degree weather dampened my plan. Luckily the farmers market here has some decent batches. This year, instead of boiling the tomatoes and peeling them, I got an even easier idea from a post on Apron Strings for Roasted Tomato Sauce for the Freezer.  I love the flavor of roasted tomatoes. So I followed the instruction for roasting. I sliced an X on the bottom of each tomato and placed them X side up in a roasting pan. I roasted them at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes, then let them cool. Then the skins just slipped off. It was so easy... and the house smelled like roasted tomatoes. I didn't make the sauce. Kalyn's Kitchen also has a recipe that caught my eye for "Just Tomatoes" Sauce for the Freezer. I'll be trying that one next week.

4 comments:

  1. There is nothing better than your own tomatoes! I must try this next year. Last year, I just froze them whole in freezer bags...so so good!

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  2. I'm going to try this! I hope I can get more tomatoes from my own plants next year. We had the opposite problem - it was too cold to plant until late July. I got a few tomatoes, but my plants are still full of little green tomatoes, and now the weather has turned cold again.

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  3. I freeze tomatoes too. You can freeze them without the blanching and peeling. The skins will slip right off when they thaw! I freeze whole tomatoes in bags in addition to canning up some tomato sauce. Yum!

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  4. Thanks ladies. Stephanie, I'll have to remember that and just freeze some whole. It's always nice to know easier ways.

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