We are in the throws of tomato season right now. With two CSA’s, we are getting A LOT of tomatoes! Honestly in my opinion, A LOT is never enough. I even grab seconds whenever I can. I have already started canning salsa and freezing my tomatoes for use in chilis, soups, and stews this winter. In order to do either of these two things, blanching them is a must.
Here is my tutorial on how to go about blanching and then freezing tomatoes.
1. Wash all tomatoes.
2. Boil a large stockpot of water.
3. Fill a large bowl with cold water and add ice cubes to make it freezing cold. Set aside.
4. Place tomatoes (don’t over lap them so depending on pot size, maybe 5 large tomatoes at a time) in the boiling water and boil until the skin just cracks.
5. Immediately take out of the boiling water and immerse them into the cold water (this stops the cooking process) for a few minutes.
6. Peel tomatoes. Peels should slip off easily.
7. Seed tomatoes. I usually do this by “popping” any pockets of seeds and then literally grabbing the tomato and squeezing it in my hands and the seeds squeeze out. It is NO BIG DEAL if you don’t get all of the seeds out. No big deal at all!
8. Place tomatoes on a cookie sheet.
9. When the cookie sheet is filled, place in the freezer.
10. After a few hours, the tomatoes will be frozen. Place them individually in a freezer Ziploc baggie that is labeled with the dish you will use them in and the date.
* Taking the time to blanch your tomatoes is a HUGE time saver in the end. The peels of the tomato just slide right off after it is blanched.
* Frozen tomatoes, when stored properly, can last about 8 months in the freezer. Keep in mind that they may be a bit mushy when defrosted so using them in cooked dishes may be best:)
What meals do you use your frozen tomatoes in?
Because I love connecting, this post is linked up to Frugal Thursdays!
This is awesome, we’ve become overloaded with tomatoes and I’d love to find a way to use them this winter (the bonus is we won’t have to use canned tomatoes with that awful BPA lining they can’t seem to fix…) Pinning and sharing!
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YAY! I hear you! Love using fresh (frozen) tomatoes in dishes all winter long. It is one less can I need to use:) Freeze away…
I just blasted my whole tomatoes in the food processor and poured them into extra large silicone ice cube trays! But I didn’t blanche and skin them first; will this be a problem this winter when I want to use them?
You may notice a flavor difference. Blanching them tends to retain the flavor better than just freezing with skins BUT, I don’t think you will ruin them:) Let us know what you think when you use them this winter!
Thanks for sharing this!
You are quite welcome!
Great tips! I just read in Cook’s Illustrated that most of the flavor in tomatoes comes from the seeds and jelly. So it might be worth freezing some tomatoes unseeded for an extra flavor boost when the seeds won’t affect the end result.
I think you are right:) I prefer less liquid when defrosting, but it is just a matter of cooking it down longer so in the end, it doesn’t really matter. I will say though that by gently squeezing the tomatoes before freezing, you get much of the “jelly” and seeds out, but not all, so it is the best of both worlds:) Love the tip!
I freeze all my tomatoes whole and un blanched . Just wash and put them in a bag. When I take out what I want I run them under a warm tap and the skin comes right off. So simple and easy. Leaving the skins on they don’t freeze together so it makes t easy to take out just one. If they start to get any freezer burn it s just the skin and I remove that before sing.
For years my mother-in-law had a huge garden and because everything was ready to harvest at once, she just put the tomatoes on a cookie sheet and put them straight into the freezer. Once frozen she tossed them into zip-lock bags to deal with later. When she had time she’d thawed them out and the peels just fell off. Then she’d can them or make tomato sauce and can that.
Super simple!
Tomato products are one of my favorite things to freeze for winter. “fresh” homemade sauces and stewed tomatoes in winter are the best.
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Thanks for the info. I really want to gey a large freezer. I love this idea with making ahead meal add meat and spices chilli .
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Summer tomatoes frozen for winter are the best thing ever! Start checking out sales for those freezers!