Late summer is a time when we backyard gardeners are bombarded with an overload of vegetables. Tomato is one vegetable that I always have an abundance of. I use tomatoes a lot and hence when planting in spring, I plant many varieties of them. When they are ready to pick, I usually end up having 10 – 15 lbs of them every week. I use fresh tomatoes to make thakkali thokku/pickle, salsa, oven-roasted tomato pasta sauce, and jams but still have a lot that I like to preserve. In winter when the tomatoes are very expensive the ones I store usually come in handy. If you have a ton of cherry tomatoes, then you have to make this spicy spaghetti recipe. This is my go-to sauce in the summer months with garden fresh tomatoes. I have tried canning whole tomatoes, but feel that it is more work, and I somehow do not like the texture of the canned ones. That is when I started freezing tomatoes. This technique of preserving tomatoes works excellently. I have been using this procedure for the past 8 years and it has never failed me. The tomatoes that are frozen come in so handy when making subzis and dals. They also work very well in making soups. Certain vegetables could be just chopped and frozen, but for freezing tomatoes, we have to blanch them and then remove the skin. This way the tomatoes are frozen inside out and removing the skin also helps to keep them fresh and bug-free. The Roma tomatoes work great for freezing and for this reason, I always plant plenty of this variety. I freeze these tomatoes in labeled gallon-size FREEZER bags. Please make sure that you use the freezer bags and not the storage bags. This will keep the tomatoes fresh and frost-free for up to a year.
Equipment needed for Freezing Tomatoes
Large vessel – to boil water Bowl with ice and water Long handle ladle Freezer bags Permanent marker
Procedure
Choose ripe, firm tomatoes without bruises. Wash them well and remove the stems.
Boil water in a large pot. The larger the pot, the more the tomatoes could go in in one shot. I usually do not add more than 6 tomatoes at a time just to keep the water temperature at boiling.
When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the tomatoes slowly. Let the tomatoes sit in boiling water for 60 seconds.
In the meantime, in a large bowl add plenty of ice and about 4 cups of water. Keep it aside.
With a slotted ladle, remove the tomatoes slowly from the hot water and transfer them to the bowl of cold water.
Let it sit for 60 seconds and then slowly peel the skin. At this stage, the skin would come off very easily.
Line the skinned tomatoes on a baking sheet. Make sure that the sheet would fit your freezer without any problem.
Wait until the water comes back to a boil and then repeat the same steps with the rest of the tomatoes.
Fill the sheet and keep it in the freezer for about 4 hours. By now the tomatoes would be hard as a rock.
Label gallon-size freezer bags with date and content and keep them ready.
Transfer the frozen tomatoes to the labeled bags and return the bags immediately back into the freezer. Make sure that you layer the tomatoes in a single layer. This way they would stack up well in the freezer.
Enjoy the tomatoes throughout the year.
Recipes With Tomato As Main Ingredient
