How to Put Up Tomatoes (Freeze Tomatoes the Easy Way)
Tomatoes grow aplenty in the South, so here’s the easiest way to put up tomatoes. Freeze your garden fresh tomatoes to enjoy year-round.
It’s that time of year again (in the South, at least). If you planted tomatoes back at the start of the summer, they are likely coming in by the bucketful right about now. Around this time of year, I feel like I have tomatoes coming out of my ears! Still, I LOVE to grow tomatoes and I know full well this bounty will come in very handy once the growing season is over. As Weezy said in Steel Magnolia’s, “I am an old Southern woman. It is my obligation to wear funny hats and grow tomatoes”.
I actually know very few Southerners who don’t grow tomatoes. They are so easy to grow and produce such remarkably versatile fruit that can be made into any number of dishes and even preserve with ease. So, on the chance that you are also experiencing a bounty of tomatoes, I thought I’d hurry up and get this post to you so that delicious produce doesn’t go to waste.
Preserving tomatoes is so easy though, so you don’t have to wait until you have a bucketful! If you even have one tomato that is quickly ripening with no immediate need for it, use this same method and freeze it to use in a dish on another day. Waste not, want not – and nothing beats a garden-grown fresh tomato.
Of course, you can always can tomatoes, but freezing is just about the easiest (and most inexpensive) way to preserve fresh garden produce so that is the one I’m bringing you today. This method is also more convenient for smaller batches.
Today, I’ll be putting up five heirloom tomatoes from my gardens. They don’t know how lucky they are that I let them turn red! I’ve been frying up green tomatoes left and right here lately but these five managed to grow up despite my fried green tomato love. As I said, this is so easy that you can use this technique to freeze tomatoes whether you have 1 or 100.
Recipe Ingredients
- Tomatoes
- Pot of boiling water
- Freezer bags
How to Put Up Tomatoes
Blanch tomatoes
Our first step is to blanch the tomatoes, so drop them into a pot of boiling water.
Like so.
After a minute or two, the skin will split like this.
Remove them as the skin splits with a slotted spoon and place them in a dish (I use a 9×13 baking dish).
You don’t want to use a plate because when you remove the peels and chop them up there will be a lot of yummy juice involved.
If you have very ripe tomatoes they will take longer to split open. But hang in there, I promise it will happen.
See? Nice and split. Now for the cool part!
Oh, speaking of cool, you’re gonna want to let these cool down a bit. You can either wait half an hour or so or place them immediately in a bowl of ice water to speed up the process.
If you try to peel them now you’ll find they are about as hot as little fireballs!
Then, just take hold of the tomato skin and it pulls right off!
You’ll need to get a knife involved at the top, where the stem was attached. Cut that part off.
I discard all of my skins and tops but they’d be great in a compost bin if you have one.
This is what they look like with the skins removed. You can tell a few of them gave up the ghost rather quickly.
I like it when things obey me, even if it is just a vegetable. We gotta take our little triumphs where we can get them!
Now I chop each one up but you can leave them whole if you prefer.
They are slippery so be careful.
Here they are, all ready to be bagged ( and all).
Freeze tomatoes
I like to write on my bag the date and where they came from.
If your grandmother sent the tomatoes to you, it’s always nice to be able to call and say, “We had the most delicious stew made with your tomatoes today”.
Fill your bag up, get out as much air as you can, and freeze! It’s best to freeze them flat as they’ll retain that shape.
They are now ready to be used in sauces, stews, and anything else you can dream up.
There is NOTHING like your own fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter (or any other time of year for that matter).
Storage
Frozen tomatoes will retain their flavor for up to 12 months. Thaw them in the fridge before using them.
Recipe FAQs
What kind of recipes can I use with my freezer tomatoes?
The options are basically endless, but here are some suggestions:
- Stews: smoked sausage and beef stew, slow cooker beef stew, and famous Alabama camp stew.
- Use them for tomato sauce, tomato salsa, or tomato puree, like my super easy spaghetti sauce.
- Soups: tomato basil soup and pizza soup.
- Crockpot chili
- Easy weeknight suppers instead of canned diced tomatoes, like slow cooker sloppy joes, crockpot swiss steak, and skillet lasagna.
What type of tomatoes can you freeze?
This method for freezing tomatoes works for all types of tomatoes, like Roma tomatoes (also known as plum tomatoes), heirloom tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes. If you use the latter, you can keep the skins on as long as you don’t mind the skins being in whatever you dish you make with them later.
Ingredients
- fresh tomatoes
- boiling water
Instructions
Blanch Tomatoes
- To blanch the tomatoes, drop them into a pot of boiling water. After a minute or two, the skin will split. Remove them as the skin splits with a slotted spoon and place them in a dish (I use a 9x13 baking dish).fresh tomatoes, boiling water
- Cool these down before moving on to the next step. You can either wait half an hour or so or place them immediately in a bowl of ice water to speed up the process.
Cut Up Tomatoes
- Once cooled, take hold of the tomato skin and it pulls right off! You'll need to get a knife involved at the top, where the stem was attached. Cut that part off. Now I chop each one up but you can leave them whole if you prefer.
Freeze Tomatoes
- Fill your freezer bags up (getting out as much air as you can), date them, and freeze! It's best to freeze them flat as they'll retain that shape. Thaw in the fridge overnight before using in your next soup, stew, or supper.
You may also want to check out these posts:
Canning Tomatoes (Complete Video)
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Well, I guess I cheat. I put the tomatoes in boiling water for about 1 minute, then in ice water for a minute. Slip the skins off and then…SQUISH them through my fingers. (Grab one like a baseball and just squeeze it gently. It will ooze through your fingers.) lol Saves all that chopping. Since they usually go kinda mushy anyway, I don’t need to spend my time making “cubes”.
Oh, and I use my crock pot. I pour in boiling water, have the pot on high and use it to hold the hot water at near boiling. I have a stove with 3 small burners and VERY small kitchen, so there’s not room for a lot of things on my stove. I can set the crock pot on top of my washer (lid down) and then transfer the produce from my crock pot to the ice water without dripping stuff all over the kitchen floor. Squish ’em right over the sterilized jar or bag it’s going into and then can or freeze it.
Hey, Darlene, I do the same thing, boil, peel, then toss them in a big bowl and then just squish them with my hands. ( I feel like a 4 year old!!) I then measure out 2 cups portions and put in quart size freezer zip locks and freeze flat. I’m always delighted when I pull them out of the freezer and see that bright beautiful red color!!
This is great!! I just hope I have some worth keeping. Seems like this crop has had more blossom rote than ever!! I put Epsom Salt around them last week, so we will see if this is a true cure!
God Bless you All.
Donna, get some Blossom End Rot from Lowe’s or Walmart & spray, spray spray! I start spraying mine as soon as I see the yellow flowers. Do you put Lime pellets in your soil before planting? This also seems to help.
Yummm…I wish I had lots of red tomatoes to put up like this. I have not had much luck with my plants this year.
I do have a great recipe you could use with green tomatoes. It’s like eggplant parm…but you use a fried green tomato. Yummmmm.
Other suggestions for how to use red tomotoes….how about Southern Goulash. My Aunt makes the best.
This is an awesome way to put up tomatoes. I make homemade sauces all the time and this is an easy way to use my tomatoes in the summer. Thanks Christy. I will be trying this. I love your site. Now if I can get some tips on getting my tomatoes to produce better that would be great.
Christy… i have been doing this for a couple of years now. but i also have put in onions and peppers that i have cut up and sauted … that way when i take the tomatoes out i just add my seasoning… it is a wonderfully simply way…. all winter i am making soups or sauces with my tomatoes with onions and peppers… love the site
Great Idea!!
In about a week I’m going to be living in deep red bliss! All of our Roma’s are just starting to turn red, so I’m looking forward to having some fun! I’m a southern girl, now what else would I be doing this time of year…
My late Mother just washed the tomatoes, cut the top part out and tossed them in a bag in the freezer. As she got more tomatoes she just kept adding to the bag.
Joan,
Did she boil them, or is that unnecessary? I like the idea of keeping the skin intact… it’s really good for you, and I hate to waste it. Thanks in advance!!
Sincerely,
Gwen
I’ve also been washing, coring, and freezing them whole with skins on for many years. Although it takes a bit more freezer space, I’ve found it works wonderfully! When I’m ready to use them, I pull out how many I need, run warm water over to slip off the skins, chop them or throw them in whole (they break down to sauce quickly). This way you can use a single tomato or a pot full. It also works for the overload of cherry tomatoes at the end of the season (these you can toss in the pot skins on and they’ll pop open in a couple minute, skins cook up some and add fiber). Super handy!