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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I put mine up like this too, except after I put them in boiling water for the right amount of time, I then place them in ice water and the skin comes off easier and they are cooler to handle quicker. LOVE fresh tomatoes!!!
My tomotoes aren’t in yet (and may not make it), but my husband swapped some of our corn for 40 pounds of tomatoes. So far, we have made ‘mater sandwiches, BLT’s, and 4 pints of salsa. (I found the most fabulous salsa mix, but checked at 4 stores today and nobody has more!)
What was the name of the salsa mix? Would love to try it. Thanks.
my tomatoes are a little slow coming in. i would love to try them in a homemade spaghetti sauce. any suggestions ? of course, i promised my 12 yr old daughter, she gets the first red tomoto !
ack, i meant tomatoe !lol.
tomato or tomatoes
Get to the bag stage in this tutorial, but instead of bagging, run them through the blender for juice with fiber. If you have enough left over after the most wonderful tomato juice you have ever had, make your sauce, cooking down to the right consistency. You may have to add more juice as it cooks down, to get the real tomato-y look. Also, can or freeze the juice in jars or cook down the juice alone for tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste… I do this because my husband doesn’t like the mouth feel of tomato pieces. My kitchen gets extra hot and stuffy, so I often just freeze the fresh juice for later, when I want the extra heat in the house. P.S. I have been known to wash, core, then blend them with the skins on for even more fiber. Personal choice.
Do you think this would work for chili peppers, too? I bought a plant because it was only $0.75 and now I have a ton of chilis that I don’t know what to do with! Haha
I either chop the chili peppers and then bag and freeze them or freeze them whole and take them out of the freezer and chop frozen.
Maybe try stringing up with needle and thread to dry and use as needed. This really looks lovely to.
Be careful when freezing tomatoes that they freeze really quickly. I froze several, in plastic boxes, years ago, and they all spoiled because they didn’t freeze quickly enough.
Cool before applying lid and putting into freezer.
Love it! I do the same at first but once I get to the “put in bag stage” I put them in hot jars, add a teaspoon of salt and wipe off the top of my jar, then add a hot lid and band, then cook the jars for about 30 min. All there is to it! They taste better to me that way and I dont have to worry my freezer will go out. I did 11 quarts of tomatoes and 8 pints of salsa this way yesterday. And I have the orange nails too! I looked down at them last night in church and was mortified at first then realized it was a mark of distinction! HA!
Love your site Christy, I have sent the link to several of my friends and they love ya too!
How do you cook the jars
Mary, you use a water bath canner. It is dark blue with white specks , large pot, with canning jar rack and lid. It should be used for anything you can (unless it must be processed in pressure canner {vegetables, meats} ). Use waterbath for fruits, jams, jellies, corn relish, apple sauce, APPLE BUTTER, tomatoes, etc.
do you use canning salt or just regular table salt?
I use regular table salt or kosher salt.
Christy, I must tell you how much I LOVE your website! Cooking has always been such a passion of mine and it’s so nice to have a place to go not only for wonderful recipes but great comments and suggestions from others who feel the same way.
Thank you so much Carl!!! I am so glad you are enjoying the website and it is an honor to have you here as part of the family!!
I read that you can use table salt that is NOT IODIZED instead of buying the CANNING SALT.
I didn’t use either. Just kosher. 🙂
I read that you can use table salt that is NOT IODIZED instead of buying the CANNING SALT.
…and it’s spelled Ouisa (but pronounced “Weezah”). Steel Magnolias is one of my favs. Thanks for the tutorial! I love storing food in the freezer, and this year, I have a good crop of ‘maters to put up. Love Southern Plate’s new look; red is my favorite color!
It is probably really Louisa or Louise and they often call them Weeze or Weezah. I have a great great aunt whose name was Sara and they called her Sarrie or Sarry I think her midle name was Jane and in the south they both go together, Aunt Sairy Jane. I have a Weezie too, Mary Louisa Elizabeth (maybe another before the surname) and many just called her Lou. She was of German descent but was in Tennessee, if that made a difference but she was not called by two names together. There there are the JP’s and the HD’s and all the “Juniors”, so much that my son was named the II even though he was in position to be a Junior, but I wanted no one to call him Jr. We called him Robby, then later Rob, and at work they probably use Robert which he tried to switch to, but somehow the Rob stuck. His dad was called Bob (Bobby by aunts and uncles). My grandpa planted a garden, harvested and then canned his produce. There is nothing that tasted as good unless it was his fresh tomatoes. I once canned beans but they didn’t taste like his. I am the only one who canned beans and they tasted like from a can at the store or worse. My grandfather’s were scrumptious. Don’t know how he did it. I think he did put in small new potatoes with the beans and he used those purple runners, I think they are called and when cooked they turn green. I don’t know if he added fat of somekind after he canned them or before. My mother couldn’t even make fresh beans taste like his. They were fantastic. And the Chicken and Dumplings on Sundays (when visitors would likely come by, especially when they were good cooks and pies and cakes as well as Chicken and Dumplings. Had to be that to make the chicken go around.