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Gardening

Freezing ripe tomatoes whole

(11 Posts)
Grannyknot Thu 04-Oct-12 18:11:58

Has anyone done this? I have a friend who says she washes ripe tomatoes and freezes them individually just like that and then puts half a dozen in a freezer bag and that's all you need to do to use them later in the year for cooking. Any thoughts?

Marelli Thu 04-Oct-12 18:33:11

My neighbour's been giving me big bags of tomatoes over the last week or so. We've eaten what we can, and I've made soup with the rest, but haven't thought of trying to freeze them whole. Wonder if it would work ok confused

vampirequeen Thu 04-Oct-12 18:55:48

I don't see why not if you're only going to use them for cooking. It works for chopped onions and chopped mushrooms.

JO4 Thu 04-Oct-12 18:59:31

They would probably be a bit squishy when they defrosted but they would be fine in cooking.

JO4 Thu 04-Oct-12 19:00:18

Waitrose sell frozen onions already chopped!

Marelli Thu 04-Oct-12 19:13:00

So do Farmfoods and Iceland, jingl. I use them often!

MrsJamJam Thu 04-Oct-12 19:19:41

They are fine for cooking, and I find that the great advantage is that the skins peel off easily when they are partly defrosted. No need to fiddle about with boiling water.

JessM Thu 04-Oct-12 19:32:51

Oh that is useful mrsjj
On the rare occasions that i have had a surplus I just cook them up into a tomato and onion mush and freeze. useful base for many recipes - bolognese, pizza etc and takes less room than whole.
But if you dont like the skins...

merlotgran Thu 04-Oct-12 21:21:03

When frozen they are as hard as billiard balls so they are easy to store in bags.

Grannyknot Fri 05-Oct-12 14:08:21

Fab, thanks, everyone. Going to be freezing and storing this weekend then.

NfkDumpling Fri 05-Oct-12 14:14:15

I've always frozen my surplus tomatoes (except this year when they got blighted). They can easily be then be used for sauces, soups and casseroles throughout the winter. The skins just ping off when run under the hot tap. Drained a bit with a dash of Lea Perrins they're good on toast too.