Freezing Tomatoes, How to Freeze Tomatoes, Freezing Vegetables

Easy tips for freezing tomatoes at home. Preserve extra tomatoes from your vegetable garden by freezing them whole, chopped, diced or made into sauce or salsa.

Many tomato plants in the garden will produce such an abundance of fruit, that you will likely have plenty of fresh sun-ripened tomatoes to tuck away for the winter months!

If you have room in the garden for two or more tomato vines, you can be assured of plenty of extra tomatoes during normal growing conditions.

If you would like to have a supply of ripe, frozen raw tomatoes or a stock of frozen precooked tomatoes for use in cooking, select fruits that are fully ripe yet firm.

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How to Freeze Tomatoes

Preparing Tomatoes for Freezing

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Tips for Freezing Tomatoes

Freezing Whole Tomatoes

Freezing Stewed Tomatoes

Pre-Freezing Tomatoes Before Packaging

Freezer Storage Life

Freezing tomatoes have an expected storage life of at 8 months is freezer temperature is maintained at zero degrees or lower.

Ten months to a year is a reasonable time period during which you can expect quality to remain high, so long as the freezer temperature remains low.

Some freezers are equipped with special quick-freezing sections or extra cold surfaces, if your freezer has one of these, be certain to use it.

Frozen Tomato Uses

Some gardeners are not too keen on the idea of freezing tomatoes intended for use in salads.

Of course, the texture of thawed tomatoes is changed but their flavor is intact.

For example, in dishes that you normally use fresh tomatoes such as chicken cacciatore or spaghetti amatriciana, freeze a supply of especially meaty kinds like Italian plum tomatoes.

To prepare them, just dip them for a few seconds into boiling water, skin them, cut out the cores, and pack.

If you wish, cut each tomato in half and squeeze out most of the seeds.

Luckily, there are not many seeds in the recommended Italian type mentioned above.

Since tomatoes are used most often in sauces, it is a good idea to have the vegetable frozen on hand.

We offer the following basic tomato puree to prepare for the freezer suitable for using in any kind of sauce you desire to make.

Makes about 1 quart.

Basic Tomato Puree Recipe

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup minced onion

2 ½ pounds chopped ripe tomatoes with their skins

3 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon sugar

Directions:

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Freezing Tomatoes to Vegetable Gardening

Freezing Tomatoes to Freezing Vegetables

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