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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Freezing tomatoes..

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When your garden rains tomatoes, freeze them. Or can them.
You must all know by now that I am not into canning. Yet. I have two options with the abundance of tomatoes. Either freeze them or make different things and freeze. I didn't have time to cook something with them and then freeze. So, I just cut them up and froze. Many years back, I used to cut them and freeze them in ice cube trays. But now, I use my silicon muffin pan to do the job. Chop the tomatoes and fill the cups. Cover with a plastic wrap and freeze till solid. After they freeze, I pop them out and place all the frozen rounds in a ziploc and leave it in the freezer.
In winter, when fresh tomatoes are so expensive I use them. When I am making sambar or rasam, all I need is one or two rounds of these and we are good to go. This is home grown, but you don't have to grow tomatoes to do this. Towards the end of September, truck patches and farmer's markets have sale on bins of tomatoes. I have got 30 pounds for about 14 dollars. Buy them, chop them and freeze and use through out the winter.

Enjoy.
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18 comments:

  1. Sayantani Mahapatra MudiAugust 10, 2011 at 2:34 PM

    that's a real helpful tip.

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  2. kankanaAugust 10, 2011 at 6:19 PM

    that's a a great idea. My tomato plant is yet to even show any sign of tomato :)

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  3. AnuAugust 10, 2011 at 6:56 PM

    Nice idea...I had to freeze tomatoes in summer once...because I got them once and they started to spoil the very nxt day...so I chopped them and put in ziploc bags...they last long and very handy....

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  4. Recipe worldAugust 10, 2011 at 7:18 PM

    Wow! That's a gud idea really!!

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  5. harini-jayaAugust 10, 2011 at 10:00 PM

    I froze whole tomatoes last year, but chopping sounds even easier!

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  6. notyet100August 10, 2011 at 11:00 PM

    Thnks for the tip

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  7. HasnaAugust 11, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    hey... bt is it necessary to freeze it in the muffin pan.. i used to chop them and freeze them in ziplock bags directly.. jst keep it ina flat position and beat them with a roller pin wen needed.. jst one beat s enough, u get them separated easily....

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  8. HasnaAugust 11, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    awesome pix.... luvd it!!

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  9. Savi-RuchiAugust 11, 2011 at 7:12 AM

    I puree the tomato & freeze them. Thanks for making my job much more simple!

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  10. ChampaAugust 11, 2011 at 7:36 AM

    Thanks everyone for leaving a comment on such a simple post. I appreciate it a lot.
    Hasna,
    I use the muffin pan just so it is easy to measure. All I use is about 2 tomatoes for rasam or sambar and these muffin cups hold one large tomato or 2 small ones. I can just use howmuchever I need. Thanks for your suggestion too. Will try it.

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  11. Rosa's Yummy YumsAugust 11, 2011 at 8:57 AM

    I love that fisrt shot! A great tip, thanks.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  12. maliniAugust 11, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    thanks a lot for helpful tip.

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  13. AJAugust 11, 2011 at 11:30 AM

    I do the same thing!! Get them from a local farm!!

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  14. RichaAugust 12, 2011 at 11:35 PM

    Cool tip champa.. never thought of freezing tomatoes..
    Or u can have a tomato battle like the movie ZNMD, if u have surplus:)
    Have a fun weekend!

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  15. NishaAugust 13, 2011 at 11:46 PM

    I think your tips section is incredible Champa. Loads of useful information.

    This one is too good. I assume we can freeze tomatoes like this for atleast 6 months, right?

    I usually make tomato onion paste (cooked and all the water dried) for 1 week use, refrigerate it. And use it later, saving lot of time required in cooking tomatoes and onions. Can i freeze this too for longer time? Any idea?

    Thanks.

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  16. ChampaAugust 14, 2011 at 7:50 AM

    Nisha,
    If you freeze it in the regular freezer which is part of your refrigerator, it will be good for 3 months. If you freeze in a chest freezer, it will be good for longer. About 6 months or so.
    Yes, you may freeze the paste as well.

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  17. Sensible VegetarianAugust 15, 2011 at 1:01 PM

    This surely is a very useful post champa and love the first click.

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  18. Inspired by eRecipeCardsAugust 15, 2011 at 7:40 PM

    fabulous tip

    ReplyDelete

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