Preserving Your Garden Tomatoes

September is the time to really start preserving the bounty of your garden. I previously wrote about preserving herbs from your garden and today I have another gardening tip – preserving your garden tomatoes. There are many ways to do this but today I am sharing how to preserve your tomatoes by roasting them.

This was not a great year for my tomatoes. They grew slowly and took forever to ripen on the vine. I did a little research and my hypothesis is that it was just too hot. While tomatoes like hot weather, if it is too hot they ripen much slower. 

As a result of slow ripening, I didn’t have a bounty of  tomatoes at any one time. That is until now. I suddenly had a couple pints of grape tomatoes and quite a few of my larger San Marzano tomatoes at the same time and they are perfect for roasting.  I love roasting tomatoes in the oven and tossing them over gluten-free pasta. However, I had too many tomatoes for one pasta dinner. 

So I did some digging and found out that you can keep roasted tomatoes in an airtight container in your fridge for up to three weeks. So how do you do it? 

PRESERVING YOUR GARDEN TOMATOES – HOW TO

1. Remove the green leafy tops from the tomatoes your’ve picked. 
2. Put tomatoes into a strainer and rinse well under water. 
3. Let the water drain off the tomatoes. Then dry with a clean kitchen towel. 
4. Cut the smaller tomatoes, like grape or cherry tomatoes, in half or thirds depending on their size. Dice any larger tomatoes into similar size pieces. 
5. Remove the core from the cut tomatoes. 
6. Put the tomatoes in a large bowl and toss with oil, salt, and pepper to taste. You want some flavour, but don’t over do it as you want to keep the integrity of the tomato flavour. You can add more flavour afterwards when using them. 
7. Cover a baking sheet in foil and a layer of parchment paper over top the foil. This help keeps the pan clean and your tomatoes from sticking. 
8. Bake in a 375° oven for 30 minutes turning them halfway through. You want the tomatoes to be soft and slightly shrivelled. 
9. Let the tomatoes cool on the cookie sheet. 
10. When cool place in an air tight container or jar and top with a layer of oil. The layer of oil is what persevere them and keeps mould from growing. I used Pureoliva Blended Oil, which is a blend of canola and Olive oil. You can use either canola or olive oil depending on  how strong an olive oil flavour that you enjoy.
11. Label and place in your fridge to store. 

You can add these roasted tomatoes to a charcuterie board, usi roasted cauliflower, as well. This is a very easy way to preserve tomatoes that doesn’t limit how you can use them. 

Do you have different recipes or gardening tip for preserving tomatoes? What is your favourite way to preserve the bounty of your garden? Share your ideas with us in the comments.