Ever wonder what to do with that bumper crop of garden tomatoes each summer? What if I told you that you could freeze them? Well, you can! It's a super helpful hack that allows you to benefit from all your garden tomatoes, even the ones you can't possibly put to use all at once.  

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Fresh tomatoes can be frozen in many forms -- with and without skin, raw, cooked, sliced, pureed, chopped or whole. I'm going to share how to freeze fresh raw whole tomatoes with skins. In other words, that bumper crop of garden tomatoes, straight from the garden!

To me, it's the easiest no fuss, no muss way to preserve your garden bounty, which also allows you some time to decide what you want to do with them!

So be forewarned: Once thawed, they'll be perfect for soups, sauces, chilis and stews (since they'll become mushy when thawed). So while they won't be good for recipes calling for uncooked tomatoes, e.g., salsas, caprese and/or garden salads, margherita pizzas, etc., they can still be put to good use in the colder months (when you'll be craving warm, cooked recipes anyway)! 

At the end of this post I provide some suggested recipes and ideas that will help you with your frozen tomato stash!

While this freezer method can be used with any type of tomato, my tomatoes were Moneymaker tomatoes I grew from from seed. Moneymakers aren't huge in size but they're prolific and flavorful.

Luckily, Moneymaker tomatoes are indeterminate, meaning they don't all ripen at the same time. So my freezing process was done in waves, as each batch of tomatoes became ripe. Be forewarned that if your tomato plants are of the determinate variety they will ALL GET RIPE AT THE SAME TIME so you need to be prepared to handle freezing a boatload of fresh tomatoes pretty much all at once. Which makes this advice even more helpful to you!

Freezing tomatoes is super easy!

 

HOW TO FREEZE GARDEN TOMATOES

1. Rinse your fresh garden tomatoes and pat dry.

 2. Line a metal tray with wax paper sheets (I use this brand).

3. Using a sharp knife or tomato huller, remove each tomato's core. While I used a knife, it would have been super helpful to have had a huller.  

  4. Place each cored tomato onto the tray. 

5. Place the tray directly into the freezer, and leave overnight to allow the tomatoes to fully freeze.

6.  Once frozen, remove tray from freezer and place the frozen tomatoes into a Ziploc freezer bag (I used one gallon freezer bags), making sure to get out as much of the air from the bag as possible.  

7. Using a Sharpie marker, place the date on the outside of the bag.  

8. Store bags of frozen tomatoes in freezer for up to 6-8 months, removing them as necessary for your yummy fall and winter recipes.  

To defrost, just place the tomatoes in a bowl and let them defrost at room temperature. Then either remove the skins (very easy to do with your hands - they practically fall off), or not, before using in recipes.

 

FROZEN TOMATO RECIPE IDEAS    

To get you started, I've curated a list of yummy recipes you can make using your frozen garden tomatoes!

1. Tomato Sauce

How To Make Sauce From Frozen Tomatoes

2. Tomato Paste

Easy Homemade Tomato Paste Recipe

3. Chili

Classic Red Chili (replacing commercial tomato sauce with fresh)

4. Tomato Soup

Heirloom Tomato Soup In A Home Made Italian Bread Bowl

5. Beef Stew

Old Fashioned Beef Stew

The beauty of it is, once your tomato sauce is made, you can use it in so many ways! Just a few more examples:

pasta 

baked ziti

lasagna

meatball subs 

chicken parmesan

The possibilities really are endless! 

Good luck with freezing those fresh tomatoes! And if you don't grow your own tomatoes (kudos for reading this far), perhaps seeing how easy it is to freeze them might just be the nudge you need to get you gardening next spring!

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