Preserving tomatoes: freezing
Some years, I have the time and energy to preserve tomatoes by canning, but ever since we got a deep freeze several years back, I find myself opting to freeze more often than not. So I’m going to share with you this super easy, time saving technique I’ve been using for years. Bonus soup recipe at the end!
5 easy steps to freeze tomatoes
Start by sorting your tomatoes. Select ripe tomatoes that are unblemished. If I have a tomato that isn’t rotting, but has a nick or small blemish I can easily cut out, I do that.
Remove the calyx (green top) and put into a colander.
Rinse in the sink and transfer to a drying rack, kitchen towel, or hand dry them.
Put the tomatoes in a frfeezer bag
4. When they’re dry or nearly dry, transfer them to a gallon freezer bag that’s labelled with the date, and if you’d like, which types of tomatoes. Sometimes we put mostly black/purple tomato types into one bag because we love the smokey, rich flavor for red chili. 5. Put the bag into your freezer. We have used them up to a year after freezing or a little over with great success.
How to use frozen tomatoes
Frozen tomatoes can be used the same way canned tomatoes are. Some good options are soups, stews, casseroles, tomato sauce - anything you’ll be cooking. Here’s the best part! When you are ready to use them, take out as many as you need. You can either soften them in a colander, bowl, or cutting board for a short time and cut semi-frozen (super easy and tidy), or, if you don’t want the skins, they are sooo easy to remove. No blanching required. This was an awesome aha moment for my husband and I. If you run them under warm water in a colander, the skins slip right off with your fingers. Then you can chop them semi-frozen and add to your recipe. Yessss! It is SO convenient.
Skins are easy to remove
Bonus: soup recipe
Here is one of our favorite recipes. I don’t know where I originally got the inspiration for this soup (Pinterest?), but we’ve been making it for so many years, and it’s different each time we make it depending on what we have on hand or extras from the garden. This is not an exact recipe, but a loose guide depending on what your preferences are. If you do not eat meat, you can leave the sausage out or go with a meat substitute. If you leave it out, it’s a “beans and greens” soup.
Italian Soup (we call it Tuscan Soup in our house, but I’m sure that’s a misnomer)
1 lb ground sausage. We typically go with mild Italian chicken sausage from Sprouts. We’ve used hot Italian pork sausage as well. Super flexible.
1 small onion, chopped
Few cloves of garlic, minced (or a few more if you’re like my husband)
2 quarts of chicken or veggie stock. We use homemade bone broth most of the time
Several potatoes (however potato-ey you want it), diced. Yukon gold, russet, whatever you have on hand.
28 oz or so of white beans (cannellini or great northern). Canned, or our preference: dry beans cooked, frozen, and defrosted.
28-32 oz tomatoes, but you could double this if you like more of a tomato based soup. Home-canned, store-bought canned, frozen, or fresh.
Celery and summer squash are optional additions, but you could go crazy with other veggies. Add celery at onion stage, and squash at potato stage in the instructions below.
Roughly torn or chopped greens. Whatever you have available. Our personal favorite is swiss chard, but kale and spinach work equally well. Add a bit more than you think you’ll need since they wilt down a lot.
Whichever italian herbs strike your fancy. We usually do oregano, basil, and thyme, dry or fresh.
Salt and pepper to taste
Hard aged cheese, grated (our fave - Bellavitano, but you can do anything really - asiago, parmesan, etc)
Cooking instructions
Brown the meat (with a little oil if you’d like) in an InstantPot, skillet if cooking in a crock pot, or stock pot if you’ll be cooking the soup on the stove top. Add onions while meat is browning along with some salt and pepper, and garlic when meat and onions are done for a minute or two.Add stock, potatoes, tomatoes, beans. Add a bit more salt and pepper, or wait until the end. Cook depending on your chosen method. 8 hours on low for the crock pot, about 10-15 minutes in an InstantPot, or 40-60 minutes at a simmer with a lid, or until potatoes are done if using the stove top. Add the greens and herbs and cover to passively cook for about ten minutes (kale sometimes needs a little more help getting soft enough). Add however much cheese on top as you’d like - this is our favorite part. Serve with bread and a salad, if desired. It is some serious comfort food.Freeze for up to a few weeks. Add the cheese when you’re ready to serve. Enjoy the harvest from the garden through the winter in some nice soups and stews. Yum!