Stewed Tomatoes in 3 Easy Steps

Reader Contribution by Jessica Kellner and Editor-In-Chief
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Tomato season has hit Kansas, and our tomato plants are in full production mode—meaning tons of delicious garden-fresh tomatoes in just about everything we eat. But even so, we simply have too many to eat them all right now, and I want to save some of this summer deliciousness for later in the year.

Luckily, we have a food-freezing guide in our July/August issue, so I was ready to preserve some of our ripe fruit. Last year was the first year we had tons of tomatoes and I planned to try my hand at canning, but having a baby in the middle of August squashed those plans. So this is my first year of experimenting with preservation methods. I decided to try the very easy instructions for stewing tomatoes Barbara Pleasant recommended in our Guide to Freezing Food (instructions below).

I thought the peeling part would be a task, but it was actually incredibly easy. After being dunked into a big pot of boiling water, the skins peeled off easily. Then I dumped out the water and put the quartered tomatoes back into my stockpot over medium heat. 20 minutes of cooking and voila—supersimple stewed tomatoes bursting with flavor. I started with probably 30 tomatoes and got six 8-ounce jars of stewed tomatoes. I put them in the freezer this time because I was in a rush. Next time I’m going to try water-bath canning so I don’t have to worry about defrosting before using.

3-Step Stewed Tomatoes

1. Put fresh tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Let cool briefly and peel loosened skins.

2. Cut into quarters, put into a large pot over medium heat and add about a cup of water.

3. Cook for 20 minutes, then turn off heat. Let cool, transfer to jars and either freeze or can.

  • Published on Aug 22, 2013
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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