3 cooking ingredients with 1 kg of tomatoes.

I have a glut of big tomatoes at the moment. We are eating lots every day but I don’t want to waste any. I have no more jars to make passatta, and no room in the freezer to store any tomatoes. We  have also gifted quite a few. Therefore, I thought that I would make tomato paste or puree as I use one tube at least a month. Suprisingly, my experiment ended in me making 3 different cooking ingredients from 1 kg of tomatoes.

I thought that I was going to make just tomato paste or puree, but I also ended up with tomato juice, and tomato skins which I will turn into powder to make tomato soup in the winter.

This is what I did.

1. Put a cross in the top of each tomato and placed them in the slow cooker for 2 hours. (I was going out or I might have done this step in a pan.)

2. When I came back they were soft and so I took the skins off the tomatoes. I placed them on a silicone mat to dehydrate in my warm conservatory. They just fell off the fruit easily. A dehydrator or an air fryer could be used to dehydrate them but I am saving energy.. Once dry I will grind them into a tomato powder which I will add to soups during the winter.

3. I then drained the juice from the tomatoes through a sieve and placed it in a sterile bottle. This went into the fridge when cool. I will make a rissotto with this, and drink some. It tastes gorgeous and sweet.

4. I then sieved the tomatoes again, pressing the pulp through with a back of a spoon. All the seeds were left. I wonder if I should save some to see if they will grow?

4. The next step was to whiz what was left of the tomato with a hand blender. the tomato. Next I placed it in a pan, and simmered it down for 10 minutes. It needed to cook a bit longer to reduce down and so I placed it on a silicone mat in the sun in my conservatory. I needed to get a few jobs done before it rained, but I could have cooked it longer to reduce the liquid.

5. The puree looked ready when I came in and so I cut up some squares of grease proof paper. I put a tablespoon of puree on a square and then put a square of greaseproof on top. Next I put another tablespoon of puree on this paper and placed another square on top. I repeated this 7 times until the puree had gone. A square of greaseproof paper was placed on top.

6. The stack of puree was then placed into a bag and put in to the freezer. I will peel them off one at a time as I need them.

Verdict.

It probably wouldn’t have been worth doing this procedure if I had just needed the puree. It will probably only save me the cost of one tube. However a tube of organic puree would not be cheap, and I know this has no nasties. I was blown away by how beautiful and sweet the tomato juice was. I can’t wait to use that on Monday. The skins are not dry yet. When they are I will make tomato powder. I have done this previously and it really enhances the taste of a winter soup. I have added it to savoury scones and wraps before as well.

Every week I am making a stew in the slow cooker and putting in about 15 tomatoes. If the tomatoes keep coming in thick and fast I will definitely do this again. It will use up my tomatoes, but also delay a visit to the supermarket. Some people add salt when making puree. I didn’t want to. How do you use up your glut of tomatoes?