How to Blanch Tomatoes

Blanching tomatoes is an easy process but often necessary in using fresh tomatoes in recipes for sauces and salsas, and also any canned tomatoes that are to be cooked prior to canning. Blanching is an effective technique for preparing vegetables for freezing or canning, but the main purpose i use blanching for when it comes to tomatoes is to remove the skins.

Removing skins before using tomatoes in a sauce or salsa is not necessary, but it does produce a higher quality product since in many cases the skins will not disintegrate and will then become chewy little unpleasant pieces in your sauce or salsa. It is very easy and while slightly time-consuming, it is worth it overall.

Now, how to blanch tomatoes.

You will need:
Tomatoes
A large pot
A bowl with ice water
A slotted spoon

For freezing purposes, you may want:
A cutting board
A knife
Freezer bags


1. Fill the large pot with water, set it on the stove and bring the water to a boil

2. Fill the bowl with ice water and keep it near the stove

3. Wash the tomatoes





4. Once the water is boiling, drop the tomatoes, a few at a time (6 or 8 is a good number), into the pot



5. For sauces, you may keep the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 3 minutes. For salsa or other uses in which you'd prefer slightly firmer fruit, keep the tomatoes in the boiling water for one minute or less.


6. Once the time is up, move the tomatoes using the slotted spoon into the ice water. Again, for firmer tomatoes, keep them in the ice water for a minute or two. For soft tomatoes, leave them in the ice water for 3 minutes.






7. After the time is up, the tomatoes may have split their skins, making them easy to peel right off. If the skins haven't split, start at the top of the fruit and peel away, the skin should still come away easily.

Since making my tomato sauce takes 4 hours to make & blanching only takes a few minutes, i like to take my large batches of summer tomatoes and blanch them, chop them up and freeze them, to use in my sauce later, when i have more time. If you want to freeze your blanched tomatoes, chop them up after removing the skins and stick them in a freezer bag. When you're ready to use them, take the tomatoes out of the freezer the day before and let them thaw in the fridge. This process makes pureeing them in a blender ten times easier, creates more liquid making more liquid for your sauce.













You can use the blanching process for many other vegetables to freeze fresh veggies for later use. Again, i do this with everything in my garden, from green beans to zucchini, and we are still eating our freshly frozen vegetables that we grew during the summer. You can freeze fresh veggies you buy at the store when they're in season too, saving yourself some money!