Freezing Fresh Tomatoes, Step by Step

Freezing Fresh Tomatoes, Step by Step : Discover how to freeze tomatoes with ease with this simple process, and come up with quick methods to use them up later when you have time. Not to mention, no blanching!

Ingredients

8 tomatoes (or more or less depending on what you have on hand)

Instructions

To freeze tomatoes:

After washing, pat dry the tomatoes.

Take off the stem.

Transfer to a plastic or silicone freezer bag, press out as much air as you can, and close.

For up to a year, freeze.

To thaw frozen tomatoes:

Take a sack out of the freezer. Put in a big bowl or the sink for at least a night. (If the bag is full, they take some time to defrost.)

After thawing, remove the skins with ease—they slide off. The liquid can be thrown away or substituted for stock in recipes.

Tomatoes can be cooked however you choose. (See the Notes for recipe suggestions.)

Notes

Use silicone or plastic freezer bags in quart or gallon sizes.

To ensure that they freeze and thaw at the same rates, I like to freeze cherry tomatoes and larger tomatoes separately.

Over the summer, you can start a bag and add to it.

Nutrition

Calories: 44kcal
Carbohydrates: 10g
Protein: 2g, Fat: 1g
Saturated Fat: 1g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g
Monounsaturated Fat: 1g
Sodium: 12mg
Potassium: 583mg
Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 6g
Vitamin A: 2049IU
Vitamin C: 34mg
Calcium: 25mg
Iron: 1mg

FAQs

What is the best way to freeze fresh tomatoes?

Really, all you have to do is place them in a freezer bag and freeze them. When you’re ready to cook them, you can easily remove the peels by doing this easy step. Additionally, it reduces the length of time you need to boil them by releasing the liquid when you thaw them. (A lower starting liquid level in the tomatoes implies less time for it to evaporate.)

How do you freeze tomatoes without blanching them?

The stems can be cut off and put in a freezer bag. Next, stop.

Why do some people blanch tomatoes before they freeze them?

If you wish to peel tomatoes, you can blanch them before freezing. After that, you can just throw them into soup and stew recipes. I would rather not blanch them since I find that to be very difficult to handle with a hectic schedule and a house full of children.

How to Freeze Tomatoes

Being married to a gardener for many years has taught me that sometimes we have much too many tomatoes in the summer. We occasionally have two loads going at once because we also live next door to a farmer. For those occasions, this tomato-freezing technique is really useful.

Because you get to drain off a lot of the liquid when you thaw them out, it’s also fantastic for reducing the amount of time it takes to cook fresh tomatoes into sauce, salsa, or soup. We learned this trick from our neighbour: we freeze the tomatoes before thawing them in preparation for making salsa. This drastically cuts down on the amount of cooking time while releasing a lot of water while maintaining flavour.

You’ll need to boil it down for shorter periods of time if the tomatoes have less liquid.

This is a quick and easy way to freeze tomatoes, and it leaves the peels off easily. It also gives you a convenient option to store extra fresh tomatoes. When it comes time to use the tomatoes, it also reduces cooking time.