What exactly does one do with green tomatoes?
I tried making fried green tomatoes – I liked them and so did my husband (the 8 year old kid not so much) but really how many can you eat? Once I tried making pickled tomatoes – this one was a big fail – maybe I didn’t get the brine right… this year I was asked by my husband “are you going to use the green tomatoes you froze last year?”? Quite possibly he wanted them out of the freezer… so this year I tried making green tomato sauce – folks we have a winner.
I have this problem throwing out food – I really hate doing it.
I grow tomatoes every year. Last year and the year before the frost hit before I pulled out the tomato plants and flash froze the tomatoes right on the vine. I guess I was leaving them there in hopes they would ripen. No such luck.
So I threw the tomatoes in the freezer last fall and there they sat.
For almost a year… taking up space.
Right – so I wondered if I could make tomato sauce out of it – and gave it a shot – It was good!!!! so I made it and canned 4.5 or so jars and plan to do the same with whatever is left on the vine this year too… If we don’t eat it or we have too much I plan on giving it away as teacher gifts along with the jams I usually make in the fall.
Ingredients
Here is what you need for green tomato sauce
- 5-10 lbs of fresh or frozen tomatoes
- water
- dried basil (1-2 tablespoons to taste)
- dried garlic powder (1-2 tablespoons to taste)
- Salt
- Pepper
Really that’s it.
Super simple directions
Throw all tomatoes that will fit into the pot and add some water (1-2 cups will do). Boil the hell out of them until they are a soft mush. You can take out the seeds if you wish but I left them in and didn’t even cut up the tomatoes before I threw them in. I put mine in frozen…. unfortunately I left the green tops on mine before I froze them and had to pick them out after the boiling process- I suggest if you make this green tomato sauce that you take the green tops from the vine off before you toss the tomatoes in the pot.
Once soft and mush use immersion blender to smooth out or place in food processor or blender. Add spices and stir.
At this point I started sterilizing my jars for canning (please look up how to do this properly so you don’t make yourself ill- it’s super easy just do it properly please). At the same time I allowed the green tomato sauce to boil with the spices to combine the flavours. When canning I added a bit of lemon juice to the top of my jars before sealing and re-boiling.
That’s it – green tomatoes out of my freezer and I have a start on the canning season (I’m a bit of a nerd and throw back to a prior century and like these things…)