Have the tomatoes from your garden taken over? My tomatoes seem to take over the garden, the fridge, the counters, the sink, and my table. I can teach you how to blanch and core tomatoes so that they can be frozen and out of your way.
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A Fresh Tomato Here and 100 Over There
My mom always had a garden. I remember our cat, Stanley, riding around on her back as she weeded around the vegetable plants. The house smelled like herbs all summer because there was always something drying on the dehydrator. Want to learn more about dehydrating herbs? Then tomato season came and it looked like a murder scene in her kitchen. Blanching, cutting, freezing, canning. Tomatoes took over every basket, bowl, and counter in the kitchen. Little did I know that my kitchen would one day look the same.
I love to garden. Something about planting seeds, caring for the seedlings, and harvesting the produce brings me joy. But I’ve got a confession to make before we go on. Although I love growing tomatoes, I hate eating them. I always have. Nothing ruins a dish like tomatoes, especially fresh ones. Despite my distaste for tomatoes, I do enjoy small amounts of fresh tomato sauce. It is delicious on a pizza or on spaghetti. A little goes a long way, but I do enjoy those small amounts.
Why is it that when it’s time to harvest tomatoes they seem to multiply? Seriously, how can 4 tomato plants fill my kitchen sink plus some counter space with tomatoes? In order to save my sanity and the tomatoes, I need a quick way to process them and get them moving on. Blanch, core, then freeze seems to be the fastest way for me to get them into the freezer and off my countertop. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a full afternoon worth of work. But It gets them from the garden to the freezer in a timely manner.
Then when I am feeling ambitious I will come back to the bags of blanched and cored tomatoes to make tomato sauce or pizza sauce.
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Why Blanch and Core Tomatoes
Blanching tomatoes removes their skin and gets them ready for the freezer. It stops them from changing color and holds in their flavor. You can freeze tomatoes raw, but they don’t always come out of the freezer looking or tasting the best. Blanching is also the easiest way to peel a tomato.
Once the tomatoes are blanched and cored, you can decide how you want to freeze them. I’ve frozen whole blanched tomatoes in plastic bags. Turning them into tomato sauce or pizza sauce works too. They take up way less space this way. My last batch of 7 quarts of tomatoes gave me 24 muffin tin pucks of sauce. I got an entire shelf back in my freezer! My mom likes to dice or crush the tomatoes before freezing them. Whatever floats your boat I guess. Maybe a combination would be best if you use a lot of tomatoes in your kitchen.
How to Blanch and Core Tomatoes
Ingredients
Fresh tomatoes
Instructions
- Cut an X on the bottom of the tomato. It doesn’t need to be very deep. This will allow the skin to peel off later.
- Place the tomato in a stock pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds or until the skin starts to come loose.
- Remove immediately and place in an ice water bath.
- When the tomato is cooled, peel the skin back and cut it off at the top.
- Cut the tomato in half. Then use your thumbs to push out the seeds.
- Now you can dice, crush, simmer, or freeze the tomatoes.
Using Blanched and Cored Tomatoes
Blanched, cored, and frozen tomatoes will work well in cooked dishes, but not so much in uncooked ones like salad. They get a little mushy and that’s just gross in salad.
After they are frozen, you can still use them to make sauces, pastes, or soups. Just toss them in a pot and simmer them down.
Tips for Blanching and Coring Tomatoes
Don’t forget to label your plastic bags with the date and what’s inside. You think you’ll remember, but you won’t. You will pull it out and throw it away because you can’t remember what’s in the bag or how long it has been in there.
The site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As a Revive EO Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
How long are the tomatoes good in the freezer?
The official answer is one year. I have lost some in the back before and they were fine well past the 12 month mark.