How to Put Up Tomatoes (Freeze Tomatoes the Easy Way)
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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)
Attitude is a little thing
that makes a big difference.
Submitted by Southern Plate reader, Sonya M.
To submit your positive or motivational quote, please click here.
Christy, there is nothing better than a fresh homegrown “mater” sandwich, with lots of mayo and salt on soft white bread…yuuuuuuuuum
Amen, sista, amen on that!!!
pssst…i might sneak in a strip or 2 of bacon….jes’ depends.
Y’all need to come on over. I’ll fix us some tea and we’ll just eat our way through the garden!
Here in the lowcoutry of SC, we eat tomatoes on biscuits with a little salt and pepper. Until I met my husband, I thought everyone did! He thought it was crazy, but now we have them at least 3 times a week when they’re coming in! I can make a meal off of them!
A friend from work brought along some bagels, cream cheese, tomatoes and lemon pepper to an outdoor summer concert. We all brought something, but I found out I just love my tomatoes this way. So good. I love tomatoes.
My tomatoes should be ready soon. I cant wait!!!!!! Thanks for the recipe. Easy is my speed!
Lawd honey, if easy is your speed, you sure did land in the right place! I am an easy devoteeeeeee – and lazy, too! lol
I can make a really nice “eye-talian” sauce with those yummy looking tomatoes. This is something I will definitely do. How nice to go in your freezer in the middle of the winter and pull out a bag of “real tomatoes”, those things you get in the supermarket just don’t cut it.
Thank you for sharing my link with your wonderful readers.I do hope they will stop by and help me on my journey to going green, one baby step at a time.
Congratulations! What a wonderful story, and I saw your button on channel 31’s site. Very cool. I’m so happy for you.
Thank you JoAnn!!! I gotta tell ya, I am really enjoying your site. I love how down to earth and non-intimidating your suggestions are. Great for the layperson who might be discouraged by more extreme measures right at the start!!!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Hello. Enjoyed the tomatoes. Can I add green bell peppers n onions to tomatoes and freeze them also
Can’t wait till we can have a garden – no place for it in this tiny apartment. Home-grown tomatoes are some of my favorite things in the world, and I really like the idea of freezing them for later!
p.s. I’ve been working on doing lots of freezer meals, inspired by your freezer “cooking class” a while back. I’ve got curry in the freezer, and a big ole’ batch of chili on the stove right now, plus several other meals still in the planning stages. I’m looking forward to having a freezer full of ready-made meals. 🙂
Hey Stephanie! I love freezer cooking. I don’t do it all of the time but I always have at least some meals tucked away and they really save me during times when I need them most! I recently ended up with a house full of people on a Sunday I hadn’t expected to feed anyone other than the four of us. I pulled out a few casseroles and popped them in the oven and ended up putting out a pretty good spread in a very short amount of time – if I do say so myself! lol
Has your little man had his birthday yet?
Thanks for this method. I’ll break out the Foodsaver for this one. Is the boiling merely to remove the skin or is it the blanching that’s important here?
It’s actually for both. You want them blanched a bit but the easy skin removal is a wondrous by product!!
Thanks Christy
This is so much easier than canning! Now if you will please just come up with an easy tomato relish I’ll luv ya’ forever. The newspaper story was great!
Linda
I shall get right on that, my dear! To be loved forever is something to aspire to!!!!
Thank you!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
How long do they keep in the freezer?
I made this recipe 2 weeks ago from my Blue Willow Inn Cookbook. It’s intended to go on fried green tomatoes, and that’s what I used it for initially. I found it’s great on anything fried, especially shrimp. It’s not relish, but chutney. I’ve fallen in love with it. I left out the green peppers, because I didn’t have any. I also used canned chopped tomatoes, but can’t wait to make it with my home grown ones. Here it is: Tomato Chutney
1 (16 oz can) whole tomatoes
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups finely chopped green pepper
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbs ketchup
2-10 drops of Tabasco ( I used 2 and had to double the recipe again to make it edible)
1 tsp black pepper
Cook all ingredients at a simmer for 2 hours, stirring frequently until thickened. Cool. Keeps 2 weeks in refrigerator. Makes about 6 cups.
Sounds wonderful! Only 2 drops of tabasco
Was too much?
I’m new to your site.i found it looking for an easy way to put up some tomatoes. Will the freezing method work for cherry tomatoes as well? I have a ton of them ripe now. The skinning would be difficult
Warren
Mmmm! I can’t wait till all my green tomatoes get all red and happy! So far, all I’ve got out of my garden is lemon cucumbers..Congrats on the paper!
Thank you!!
My tomatoes are just now starting to come in good. I’m fighting the ants over them though! lol
Always good to see you, Lindsay!
Sprinkle grits around the plants, the ants will take them, chew them, and as grits do they will expand and kill the ant without harmful chemicals.
Ants are our friend. They eat bugs