Because freezing and thawing tomatoes affects their texture, we don't recommend using them raw. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of delicious ways to enjoy them. Frozen tomatoes can be grated for instant pasta sauce or thawed completely, chopped, and added to soups, stews, or sauces.
Tomatoes may be frozen raw or cooked, whole, sliced, chopped, or puréed. Tomatoes do not need to be blanched before freezing. Frozen tomatoes are best used in cooked foods such as soups, sauces and stews as they become mushy when they're thawed.
To successfully freeze fresh raw tomatoes, you can: Slice tomatoes into at least 1/2-inch slices. Put slices on a cookie sheet and freeze for 2 hours. Remove slices and put them into freezer bags or containers.
It stops or slows natural enzymes in the tomatoes that could cause loss of flavor and color. Blanch tomatoes before freezing if they'll be in your freezer for more than a couple months. Blanching your tomatoes also makes easy work of peeling them. Here's how to do it.
Blanch:
Put your tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for 60–90 seconds. Once the tomato skins split open, transfer tomatoes into a bowl of ice water to cool.
Freezing tomatoes reduces their flavor. Enzymes responsible for a tomato's taste are rendered inactive below 50ºF. Thawed tomatoes are not appealing to eat by themselves … especially when it comes to texture.
Blanching is a must for most vegetables to be frozen. It slows or stops the enzyme action which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture. The blanching time is very important and varies with the vegetable and size. Underblanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and is worse than no blanching.
By blanching tomatoes, the skin comes out easily and can be removed if it is not required for few dishes, as it is hard to smash them. The tomatoes used for blanching must be fully ripened as it becomes difficult to remove the skin.
It is typically followed by quick, thorough cooling in very cold or ice water. Blanching stops enzyme actions which otherwise cause loss of flavor, color and texture. In addition, blanching removes some surface dirt and microorganisms, brightens color and helps slow vitamin losses.
Pros of Freezing Tomatoes
Freezing tomatoes let you enjoy summer ripened tomatoes in the winter. Sure they lose some flavor as any fresh frozen produce will, but they are still great to cook with. Freezing tomatoes is one of the easiest and quickest ways to preserve them.
Tomatoes can be frozen whole, stewed, or as plain tomato sauce.
While the freezer does impact a tomato's texture, it doesn't ruin its vibrant, acidic flavor. Some diehard canners will argue that canning tomatoes preserves more of the fresh flavor, and they may be right.
Prepare a large saucepan of boiling water, as well as a large bowl filled with ice water. In batches, add the tomatoes to the boiling water in 2-minute intervals. Using a large slotted spoon, transfer the tomatoes to the ice water and let sit for 1 minute. Place the tomatoes into large resealable bags and freeze!
Lack of nutrients in cooking water, high energetic costs, high water consumption and recycling are some drawbacks of vegetable blanching. Those disadvantages could be bypassed using microwave blanching.
Why would you peel tomatoes? The tomato skin is a different texture from the tomato flesh, and will remain so in sauces and purées—you'll get tiny chunks of skin instead of an uniformly smooth mixture. Moreover, the tomato skin is heavy in a kind of nutrient called flavonols, which impart a bitter flavor.
Take out tomatoes with a slotted spoon and place them into a prepared bowl with cold or ice water. You can also take the blanched tomatoes through running cold water. This will stop the cooking process instantly. When the tomatoes have cooled, peel them by simply taking off the skin with your fingers.
Under-blanching stimulates the activity of enzymes, proteins that cause changes in color, texture, flavor and nutrients, and is worse than not blanching at all. Over-blanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins and minerals. Follow these blanching tips for high quality frozen vegetables: Don't overload the process.
Except for onions and peppers, which you can freeze raw, you should blanch or fully cook vegetables before freezing. Blanching vegetables, or dunking them into boiling water, stops the enzymes that cause discoloration and turn frozen produce mushy. Raw fruit, on the other hand, freezes just fine.
Blanching causes cell death and physical and metabolic changes within food cells. Heat damages cytoplasmic and other membranes, which become permeable and result in loss of cell turgor (Fig. 11.4). Water and solutes pass into and out of cells, resulting in nutrient losses.
Why Do I Need to Salt Water for Blanching? Salting the water is a chemistry class in the works! The salted water helps keep the water INSIDE the cells of the Tomato! This helps preserve flavor, texture and nutrients.
You don't need to worry about removing the seeds if you're making a soup or sauce. The seeds will actually add an extra dimension to your dish and if you blend well you won't have to worry about them getting stuck in your teeth. It's a different story if you're making a salad, salsa, omelette or casserole.
You can harvest tomatoes as soon as they start turning red (or yellow or purple) and then allow them to ripen on the vine in the kitchen; however it is perfectly okay to leave your tomatoes on the plant to ripen until you are ready to harvest them.