Don’t you hate how quickly tomatoes can go bad in your refrigerator? I certainly do. The prices of vegetables are soaring.
If vegetables rot, this becomes an added expense. With my busy schedule, it is hard to go grocery shopping after every few days to get fresh vegetables.
So what can be done to avoid this issue? Well, today, I will tell you what I do to ensure my vegetables stay fresh for longer. I freeze my vegetables, especially delicate vegetables such as tomatoes, that quickly go bad.
Yes, you read it correctly. I freeze my tomatoes, and today, I will tell you exactly how you can freeze your tomatoes.
So stay with me till the end, and read the entire blog, to know how to properly freeze your tomatoes and increase their shelf life.
Can You Freeze Tomatoes?
The answer to this is, yes, you can absolutely freeze tomatoes. In fact, tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to freeze. You do not need any special preparations for this.
The only drawback to freezing tomatoes is once you defrost these frozen tomatoes, they become very soft and mushy, so you cannot use them in sandwiches or things that require raw tomatoes.
But if you want to use these frozen tomatoes to make any gravy, soup, or anything that requires you to cook tomatoes.
Is It Safe To Freeze Tomatoes?
Freezing tomatoes is completely safe and very easy to do. You can freeze them whole, chop them, or make paste or puree to use later. During the tomato harvest season, I freeze a good amount of tomatoes.
As I told you earlier, tomatoes have a very high water content, so when you freeze them, their fibers get broken.
Thus when you thaw them, they become mushy and lose their original texture. So they can’t be used raw, but if you plan on cooking your frozen tomatoes, freezing tomatoes is not an issue.
How To Freeze Tomatoes?
Tomatoes can be frozen in many different ways. The easiest way would obviously be to freeze them as a whole. Simply wash your tomatoes, dry them, pack them in a bag, and put them in your freezer.
Another method could be blanching them to remove the skin. In this method, wash your tomatoes and place small cuts on your tomatoes. Boil some water and add your tomatoes for 30-50 seconds.
Take them out and immediately put them in an ice bath. This will make the skin lose, and then it can be removed easily. After this, you can make a puree and freeze it in a jar.
You can also chop your tomatoes, blanch them and make a paste and then freeze the paste.
You can also make tomato sauce. The process is quite similar. You just need to blanch your tomatoes and grind them up in your food mill. After that, fill it in containers and put it in your freezer.
What Is The Best Way To Freeze Tomatoes?
All the methods that I told earlier are suitable for freezing tomatoes. The easiest one is obviously freezing the whole tomato without removing the skin.
But the one that I personally like and most do is blanching the tomatoes and making a tomato puree. This way, I can use this for a wide range of food items and have to do very little work when preparing any meal.
How To Thaw Frozen Tomatoes?
You may do this most quickly and easily by microwaving your tomatoes. But since it alters the texture of tomatoes, I dislike doing this. I usually just dip my bag of tomatoes into a basin of room-temperature water.
It takes slightly longer to use this approach than to microwave the tomatoes. However, doing so maintains the tomatoes’ smooth texture.
Potatoes can also be defrosted in the refrigerator. Place the frozen tomatoes in the refrigerator and then leave them overnight. This way, the change in temperature will make the tomatoes thaw.
How Long Do Frozen Tomatoes Last?
Tomatoes are very delicate in nature, thus, raw tomatoes can hardly last a week out in the open. Keeping them in a cold place like your refrigerator can make them last a few more weeks.
But if you freeze your tomatoes correctly, they will last for months without going bad or affecting their texture or taste.
It is said that tomatoes can be frozen for up to 12 months. So if you have any excess tomatoes in your home, cut them and freeze them.
Do Tomatoes Freeze Well?
One of the veggies that is the simplest to freeze is tomatoes. Tomatoes do not require the lengthy preparation methods that certain vegetables do, such as peeling and processing before freezing.
Tomatoes may be quickly frozen, greatly extending their shelf life. Without having to worry about them going bad, you may store tomatoes in the freezer for almost a year.
Tomatoes do freeze quite well, thus, it is really safe to assert so. Just be sure to boil or blanch your tomatoes first before freezing them to avoid changing their texture.
Suggested articles:
- How to freeze macarons
- Can you freeze mustard
- Can you freeze rice and red beans
- Can you freeze little smokies
Final Verdict:
Therefore, here is how to freeze tomatoes. I sincerely hope that these pointers are useful in your day-to-day kitchen endeavors and that you find freezing tomatoes to be both time and money efficient and enjoyable.
So that wraps up today. I’ll be back with another brand-new, intriguing blog very soon. Cooking will keep your inner gourmet content till then.
