Freezing Tomatoes?

[LindaS]

Hi all
I have quite a surplus of tomatoes and am looking to freeze some and use them for putting in mince, stews etc during the winter - have done a search online and got conflicting advice: One website tells me to 'peel and core', blanch then freeze, another tells me to leave them whole and blanch them and yet another tells me to just make sure they are ripe and freeze them whole without blancing! Anyone had any experience of freezing tomatoes?
Cheers!
Linda

[Lesley Jay]

Linda I freeze mine whole for making tomato soup. The recipe I have uses the whole tomato - skin, the works - then you put it through a sieve. I also roast them, split in half with olive oil, salt and garlic and this gets put through a sieve for pasta sauces and then frozen.

[LindaS]

Thanks for the reply Lesley - the roasted one sounds absolutely delicious and will definitely keep that one in my notes! Many thanks!

[LindaS]

Whoops, put in wrong forum - sorry!

[Slug]

Hi LindaS,

I had some surplus tomatoes at the end of last year which I froze. I simply chopped them into more manageable pieces and froze them as they were. I didn't blanch, skin them or anything. I then defrosted them, blitzed them in the blender and cooked up a nice tomato pasta sauce with them, and they were lovely still.

I have also used the surplus toms during the year and made pasta sauce with them. I then freeze this in jars to use whenever I need. The only thing to remember is not to fill the jar all the way to the top, and not to put the lid on the jar until the sauce is frozen, incase it splits with the expanding liquid. I'm sure you could use freezer bags too - I just use the jars as they're a handy size and I feel like I'm recycling

[LindaS]

Hi Slug
Sounds delicious, will add it to my growing list of 'what to do with my surplus tomatoes'!!! Thanks a bunch. Almost can't wait til the winter lol!!!

[andrewo]

If you don't have room in the freezer an old way of storing them for up to 6 weeks is to put them in jars, with whole cloves of garlic and a tiny bit of oil/water, you then put the jars in a low oven (1/2 or 1) with the lids on but loose, cook for 40 mins and then seal the lids on and store.

[blackkitty]

I freeze mine whole and then take them out and pour boiling water over them while still frozen and the skins peel off instantly.

[nick the grief]

Whats a surplus

[LindaS]

Thanks for the advice Andrewo and Blackkitty, gratefully received. Nick the grief, sorry mate, wasn't try to rub it in!!!!!

[lyndap]

I do same as Blackkitty with my cherry toms.They taste as good as the day they were picked!

[LindaS]

Cheers Lyndap - got a good few ideas now!!

[cherry]

Sun Dried Tomatoes!

Can't remember where I found the recipe, but I have just produced a couple of jars of sun dried tomatoes from my first glut this year.
You just cut the tomatoes in half lengthways and place on a baking tray in a very low oven for 7-8 hours, cool then put in sterilised jars and cover with olive oil.
The intensified flavour is fantastic. I wish I could say they all ended up in the jars but 50% of them never made it that far

[blackkitty]

I made the tomato ketchup recipe from 'the river cottage cookbook' today and its really very good. It does use a lot of toms though, 3kg to make four bottles full. (and that's normal tomato sauce bottles)