As the garden winds down and the season comes to an end the tomatoes start to look a little worse for wear. One way to try to use them up is to make some *simple* Frozen Crushed Tomatoes. The key here is it’s just an idea to eliminate waste and nothing too fancy. We can make as few or as many as we'd like or have. The excess liquid can be cooked out on the stove, or if you’d like, in a slow cooker. I used the stove because it goes a lot faster. My son adds some basil. I just made tomatoes, they can be used for spaghetti sauce, chili, soup, or stews.
As a point of reference, I used four large tomatoes, cooked them for 1 hour and 15 minutes. This gave me about 1/2 C of crushed. Yep, preserving is a labor of love folks:@)
It was another good tomato year from the raised bed garden, although they did ripen almost three weeks later than last year. At this point I’m beginning to pull plants and clean things up.
Frozen Crushed Tomatoes
- Wash and core tomatoes. Cut into quarters. Pushing the seeds out is always a nice idea, I didn't. Same with the skins, I left them on, just used the whole tomato. *Next time I'll run my thumbs through them to remove most of the seeds.
- Pulse about 6-8 times in food processor or chop with a knife.
- Add a pinch of salt, bring to boil. Reduce to medium low, stir occasionally so they don't scorch or burn, and cook until reduced and liquid has evaporated. This will take time, plan this project for when you are home for a few hours.
- Cool, place in freezer bags or cups, label, and freeze.
🍅Let's use up what the garden gifts us,
and Have a Happy Day:@)
