Do you have a large crop, even such that you don’t know what to do with tomatoes? Freezing is one of the quantities. Although it is more energy-intensive, tomatoes retain a lot of nutrients and will be at hand whenever you remember.
Do you also want to freeze tomatoes?
Do you have a beautiful crop and are you going to freeze the tomatoes to preserve as much nutrients as possible? Yes, it has really been proven that vegetables and fruits frozen at the moment of ripeness and maximum juiciness really retain high quality. By freezing, they only lose a completely non-negligible share of interesting nutrients. So, why not! If you have room in the freezer, splurge on the tomatoes. Freezing them is not difficult.
Brian also demonstrates it in this post on preparing tomatoes for freezing, which you can watch on the Next Level Gardening YouTube channel.
Source: Youtube
How to prepare tomatoes for freezing?
Before you jump on the tomatoes, let’s take it from the end. What do you want to use the tomatoes for? Do you want them with or without skin, whole or blended into tomato puree? Some people find skins in their food downright annoying, while others consider them to be a wonderful source of nutrients.
This also applies to further processing, i.e. pieces of tomatoes or puree. You’d be surprised how much drama opponents and supporters of different processing methods can make of tomatoes. So think about what you want and act accordingly.
Tomatoes suitable for freezing should above all be ripe, colored, they can also be noticeably softer. It can also apply to slightly damaged fruits, which you can cut as needed. The basic thing is to fill the sink with water and give the tomatoes a good bath in a cold bath.
If you are worried about mold, various pests, or you just care about maximum hygiene, add half a cup or a cup of vinegar to the water. It also slightly disinfects the fruits without having an adverse effect on their taste.
Remove unsightly spots and tougher green centers from tomatoes cleaned in this way. Now they are theoretically suitable for freezing, but it would take up a lot of space. It is also good to know that freezing the fruit will crack and the skin will no longer look very nice. But if you don’t mind the skin, you can freeze the small tomatoes whole, cut the bigger ones into cubes or slices, and then pour them into boxes or bags for freezing.
However, many advocate the use of tomatoes without skins, which is why it is useful to blanch the whole fruit briefly in hot water. But before you throw the tomatoes into the water, cut their skin. For round tomatoes, cut a cross, for oblong tomatoes just cut off both ends. Brian also demonstrates this nicely in the post, so you can learn directly from him.
Blanching is traditionally done in boiling water, but it doesn’t have to be really bubbling and you definitely don’t have to put the tomatoes in the pot in parts. It is enough to have a large amount of hot water, which you pour over the tomatoes in a bowl or in the sink.
In a few minutes, it will be possible to remove the skin from each tomato with just your fingers. Try it on one tomato, and if it goes well, get rid of the hot water and let all the tomatoes cool a bit before peeling them.
Do you like frozen tomato puree?
You can also freeze peeled tomatoes straight away, but there is another option. You can mix them and have 100% tomato puree ready. However, it is not puree, which is also reduced and deseeded. You can make the puree relatively quickly thanks to a blender or a food processor with a chopper.
Now you can divide the puree into smaller boxes and freeze it, or you can make it into frozen cubes first, for example using a silicone ice mold or a muffin tin. Then tap these frozen pieces into a bag and return them to the freezer, where they will wait until you use them.
Sources: toprecepty.cz, mirlandraskitchen.com
