Easiest way to freeze Tomatoes

Summer is generally a time of huge garden bounties, and figuring out what to do with all the extras can be a little stressful. Instead of giving it all away, considering utilizing different methods of food preservation. I stumbled across the easiest way to freeze tomatoes last year, and now it’s going to be my go to method EVERY summer.

Ok so before we jump into the easiest way to freeze tomatoes, let’s talk about goals in using those tomatoes.

So you might say, wow! 15 pounds of tomatoes picked in one morning is a LOT. Well, yes and no. If we are going to use them all right away, then yeah. That’s a lot to eat.

I love my summer tomato sandwiches for dinner, but eating even one pound of tomatoes at dinner by myself is a lot.

Well what about canning them? I do, in fact, water bath can several things each summer and fall, but my goodness. Most of the recipes are written for people with a farm, not a back yard garden.

So I have too much to eat at once but not enough to can them into sauce.

And my goal is to have my own garden grown, organic, heirloom tomatoes cooked into my own canned sauce. Your goal might be different, but I highly recommend learning to do at least some home canning. I water bath can, so it does limit what I can preserve in canning, but so far I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve made.

This is where having the easiest method to freeze tomatoes comes in.

Because I grow a medium sized, organic garden, it’s a lot of work, and my time gets crunched. That’s why I needed an easy way to preserve all my excess tomatoes until I generate enough for canning recipes.

Here’s how I did it.

Some common questions people have about finding the easiest way to freeze tomatoes:

• What is the best way to freeze tomatoes? Obviously, I think the method I’ve shared in this post is the easiest. Simply flash freeze as described, store frozen fruit in freezer bags until ready for use, and thaw over night.
• Should the tomatoes be completely dry when putting them on the pan or is it okay if they still have some water on them? I don’t want puddles of water collecting in the sheet pan from dripping wet tomatoes, but I don’t worry about them being perfectly dry before freezing…unlike making chocolate dipped strawberries which have to be completely dry before dipping in chocolate.
• How do you freeze tomatoes in a ziplock bag? Simply take the flash frozen fruit from the tray and place them into the bag. Put the bag into the deep freeze for up to one year.
• Can you freeze tomatoes without blanching first? YES!!! Follow the simple steps outlined, and you’ll have frozen tomatoes to use later.
• What does flash freezing mean? I’m so glad you asked. There is a home cook definition, which we are using and one used by food producers. In the food industry, they directly subject the food to liquid nitrogen to freeze instantly. I think it prevents ice crystals from forming and breaking the cell walls of the produce (which releases the water from the cells). For home cooks, it means we are placing whatever we are freezing onto a sheet pan and freezing flat. Or as flat as the object goes. The when the item is completely frozen, we remove it from the tray and place in freezer bags (or whatever it is you want to use) and that way, nothing sticks!! I do this with cookie dough where I freeze the scoops of dough and with wild rice burgers where I do larger scoops and freeze. Then once frozen, all goes into freezer bags in the deep freeze, and I use just a few at a time.
• Is freezing tomatoes better than canning? I would not say that, but I would say it is a different, simpler method of preservation. If you choose to cook your frozen tomatoes into sauce directly, then you’ll be cooking them every time from scratch when you go to use them in a recipe. It’s best to remove the core and seeds before cooking and that means using the food mill everytime. Maybe if you’re only freezing 10 or 20 pounds to cook a couple of recipes over the winter then just freezing makes sense. But I would encourage you to learn the canning technique for home canning your tomatoes.
• Do tomatoes taste the same after freezing? YES!!! Freezing is a wonderful method for preserving the freshness of fruit and vegetables. However, the texture of the tomatoes are a HUGE change. They will be soft and soupy, so don’t think you’ll be slicing tomatoes for sandwiches. That’s not going to happen. But the tomatoes are perfect for soups and stews or sauces.
• Can you can tomatoes after freezing them? A food scientist from Kansas State University has this to say:

“The best choice for canning previously frozen tomatoes is to make a well-cooked product, such as a stewed or crushed tomato product, or made into tomato juice or sauce,” Blakeslee said. “Canning frozen tomatoes by whole or quarters is not recommended. They will pack into the jars differently, absorb moisture differently, and the heat transfers through the jars differently,” Blakeslee said. Because of these changes, under-processing and spoilage may occur.

As stated earlier, I use my frozen tomatoes in home canned sauce, so they are both well cooked and then properly canned.

Following this method of the easiest way to freeze tomatoes and then using them in the way I produce my canned tomato sauce will help you simplify an arduous task of processing fresh tomatoes into canned sauce.

And if you are afraid of home canning, you can always cook the sauce as directed, ladle into jars with extra headspace, apply bands and lids, let them cool and then freeze those jars of sauce. I can tell you that I’ve been using my home canned tomato sauce in various different recipes and after 6 months on the shelf, nothing bad has happened.

The primary consideration in home canning is following approved recipes and practices.

This means using up to date recipes and following the instructions. The recipes are developed in university food labs designed for safe chemical makeup to prevent spoilage or even something like botulism. The hardest thing for new canners to accept is you cannot adjust recipes as you like, and you can’t put whatever you want into a jar and cook it however long you want. The recipes are designed to destroy bacteria and preserve the food in the jars safely. I recommend Ball brand canning recipes and products. My post about home canning goes into further detail and recommendations for recipe books, so please consider browsing that story, too.

All that to say, be careful with your sanitation and measurements and so on. I presented you with a recipe from a Ball book earlier in this story, and I like that one so much BECAUSE the recipe part of things takes place IN THE JAR and not in the tomato sauce.

I am going to share my method for processing the frozen tomatoes, and how I cook them in the sauce I can. So definitely check that story out!! It’s coming as soon as I can get it written up. I personally think it’s the easiest way to do this, but in all honesty, canning sauce at home is one of the more challenging recipes you’ll ever prepare as a home cook.

A good friend of mine asked me if it’s even worth doing when it’s so much time and effort. I personally can’t imagine NOT doing this now!! The flavor and the personal sense of accomplishment you’ll feel when using your own home grown, home canned tomatoes in your recipes is something that can never be substituted with any store bought tomato product.

So get out there this summer season and grow everything possible! Using the easiest method to freeze tomatoes outlined here, you will have plenty of fruit to can and/or cook all winter.

One thing I will do differently this year is to fill a couple of one gallon freezer bags with fresh cherry tomatoes. I toss them into a skillet with onions to jazz up veggie burgers or scrambled eggs. They taste like they are fresh from the garden! I wish I had done a lot more of them as I’ve already used what I had on hand.

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