So, my food dryer is full, and humming away, and my counter tops are still stacked with tomatoes. I got side tracked and ended up drying my mint, and parsley and more. What to do with all those tomatoes…?
Next strategy: freeze ‘em.
Here’s how:
Wash and core unpeeled tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and everything other varitey of tomatoes you have in your garden. Fill blender and add a few leaves of greens (Swiss chard, kale, collards, parsley or young beet greens to add super-nutrition. You won’t really taste them. You can also add a small amount (equivalent of 1/4 to 1/2 cup total) of other veggies you have in abundance such as onion, garlic, carrot, broccoli to the blender. Blend slowly so the ingredients are coarsely blended, (rather than made into a foamy frappe.) Pour into containers leaving 1″ headroom and freeze.
When you need a can of whole tomatoes to make salsa, stew, spaghetti, soups, sauces, etc., pull this out of your freezer and add it to the steaming soup pot and it will melt/thaw into a wonderful, nutritious addition! It is about the equivalent of a big can of whole tomatoes, give or take. And it is already blended up, so you don’t have to get out the blender, or wash and peel veggies again!
I save empty cottage cheese and yogurt containers all year long, stashing them for harvest time when I fill them up with peach slices, applesauce and of course, this yummy, nutritious tomato (+greens) “canned tomatoes” substitute.
I like preserving tomatoes in this way because I get to sneak in fresh garden greens that nobody yearns to eat very much of, adding high nutrition. It’s easy too! I can quickly blend up a couple of containers per day with little effort and stash them in my freezer. By the end of the week, I’ve got 14 containers! It adds up fast without being a huge project like canning. And oh, it is so delicious to taste that fresh garden tomato taste in the middle of winter!
Still trying to get out of canning…
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What wonderful ideas! I had a lot of swiss chard that we just didn't feel like eating. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I took your advise and dehydrated it. I am excited to try adding it to soup this winter!
Timely! I have lots and lots of tomatoes on my counter and no idea what to do with them. And I use canned tomatoes with some frequency, so this should work out well.