A generous tomato harvest is worth making the most of. This year, 5½ pounds of ripe beefsteak tomatoes from my garden became much more than another batch of tomato sauce. I turned them into concentrated tomato paste for the freezer, dried tomato flakes for the pantry, and fresh tomato juice to enjoy right away.
Even better, very little went to waste.
What began as a simple way to preserve an abundance of tomatoes became a practical lesson in using nearly the entire harvest.
Start With the Tomatoes
Beefsteak tomatoes are wonderful for eating fresh, but their high water content means they take a little more time to turn into tomato paste.
I washed and cored the tomatoes, cut them into large pieces, and removed the largest watery seed pockets. There is no need to remove every seed or peel each tomato at this stage.
The prepared tomatoes went directly into the slow cooker with no added water. I covered them and cooked them on HIGH for about two hours, until they were completely soft and had released their juices.
Separate the Purée
Once the tomatoes were soft, I pressed them through a fine-mesh strainer.
This simple step separated the smooth tomato purée from the skins, seeds, and tougher bits of pulp.
Press firmly with the back of a spoon or ladle. There is a surprising amount of good tomato pulp hiding among those skins and seeds, and you want as much of it as possible in your purée.
And don’t throw away what’s left in the strainer. We’re going to use that, too.
Make Slow-Cooker Tomato Paste
The strained tomato purée went back into the slow cooker.
For my 5½-pound batch of tomatoes, I kept the seasoning simple:
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
I cooked the mixture on HIGH with the lid off. Leaving the slow cooker uncovered allows the extra water in the beefsteak tomatoes to evaporate.
At first, the mixture looks much too thin to ever become tomato paste. Give it time.
As the water evaporates, the tomato flavor becomes more concentrated, the color deepens, and the purée gradually becomes a thick paste. Stir occasionally at first, then more frequently as the mixture thickens.
The paste is ready when it is thick enough to mound on a spoon rather than flow like tomato sauce.
Freeze It by the Tablespoon
Once the tomato paste has cooled, freezing it in small portions makes it much more useful.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of paste into each section of an ice-cube tray and freeze until solid. Transfer the frozen portions to a freezer container or bag.
Now, when a soup, chili, sauce, or other recipe calls for a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, I can take out exactly what I need.
No partially used can of tomato paste sitting in the refrigerator.
Turn the Skins and Seeds Into Tomato Flakes
This was the unexpected bonus.
After straining the cooked tomatoes, I was left with skins, seeds, and small amounts of tomato pulp. Instead of putting them directly into the compost, I spread the mixture in a thin layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
I dried it in a low oven at approximately 170–200°F, checking it periodically and breaking up or turning the pieces as they dried.
The important thing is to dry the mixture thoroughly. Because these aren’t tomato halves, I wasn’t trying to reproduce traditional sun-dried tomatoes. I wanted the tomato mixture completely dry and crisp.
Once dry, simply break it into pieces and you have tomato flakes.
Add the flakes to soups, stews, chili, sauces, or other dishes whenever you want another layer of concentrated tomato flavor.
You can also take this one step further and grind the dried pieces in a blender or spice grinder to make tomato powder.
What looked like kitchen scraps has now become another useful, tasty pantry ingredient.
Save a Little Fresh Tomato Juice
There was one more treat from the harvest.
The fresh tomato juice was too good not to taste, so I poured some into small glasses and garnished them with fresh celery leaves.
It needed very little else. A small pinch of salt or squeeze of lemon is plenty.
After spending time preserving tomatoes for another season, there is something particularly satisfying about enjoying a little of the harvest right then and there.
One Harvest, Three Ways to Use It
From 5½ pounds of garden tomatoes, I ended up with three very different things for my kitchen:
Tomato paste for the freezer.
Tomato flakes or powder for the pantry.
Fresh tomato juice to enjoy right away.
And what little remains can go into the compost and eventually return to the garden.
That’s one of the pleasures of growing your own food. An abundant harvest doesn’t have to mean finding one recipe large enough to use everything.
Sometimes it simply means looking at what you have a little differently.
Grow it. Use it. Preserve it. And before you throw anything away, see if there’s one more useful thing you can make from it.