The 9 Best Ways You Can Use Your Overflowing Tomato Harvest

If you found yourself with extra tomatoes during the latest harvest – congratulations! That means you have a green thumb! Many people struggle to grow tomatoes and thankfully for you, there are plenty of tasty things you can do with any extra! e

Let’s talk about the unique ways you can use up additional tomatoes without letting them go to waste.

Make Salsa!

Speaking from experience, nobody in their right mind is going to turn down a jar of freshly made salsa. If you have any excess tomatoes in your home, creating a couple of fresh jars of salsa is a terrific way to use them up. 

Homemade tomato salsa is a great addition to eggs, chicken, and more. Also, it’s a classic when paired with nachos or tortilla chips. If you have leftover cherry tomatoes, the salsa will be on the sweeter side.  

Beefsteak, tomatoes-on-the-vine, and cocktail tomatoes are frequently regarded as the standard salsa tomato varieties. Therefore, you can quickly prepare a great serving of fresh salsa with any tomatoes you happen to have from your harvest.

Making salsa allows you to incorporate your preferred flavors and make use of a variety of culinary ingredients, which is one of its best features. If you want to give your salsa a distinctive flavor and an even brighter appearance, you can put in things like peppers, onions, cilantro, corn, salt, and pepper!

Make Your Own Ketchup!

How about making your own ketchup? Making a batch of handmade artisanal ketchup from surplus tomatoes in your home kitchen might be a pleasant way to get rid of the excess fruit. The popular condiment will take on a whole new flavor profile. 

Whether you’re making eggs, homemade french fries, or meatloaf, creating your own ketchup is always tastier than store-bought. Tomatoes-on-the-The ideal tomatoes for making organic ketchup are vine tomatoes because they have a strong flavor and are among the meatier tomato types. 

Beefsteak tomatoes will also be a great option!

Tomato Soup

It is hard to beat a warm bowl of tomato soup on a chilly day. If you want to go the extra mile, pair it with a tasty grilled cheese. Making soup with all of your spare food is usually a quick, filling supper if you have extra tomatoes from your harvest. 

Cooking a large batch of tomato soup from scratch is a fantastic idea regardless of the amount of excess tomatoes you have. The ideal types of tomatoes that are suitable for cooking a rich and savory fresh tomato soup are Roma or tomatoes-on-the-vine because they are a meatier variety. 

However, you can chop up any variety of tomatoes that you have available and they will provide wonderful flavor if you’re including tomatoes in a mixed soup with veggies. 

Freeze Them

Sometimes you don’t want to make anything with the extra tomatoes at the moment. Did you know that you may freeze both the skin and the flesh of a raw tomato? Tomatoes can be frozen whole, cut in half, diced, puréed, raw, or cooked. 

Prior to freezing, tomatoes are not required to be blanched. Because they are squishy when they thaw, frozen tomatoes should be used in prepared foods like soups, sauces, and casseroles.  

Frozen tomatoes can be used in any recipe that calls for cooked tomatoes by taking them out of the freezer shortly before preparing your meal.

Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Sun-dried tomatoes, or dried tomatoes in any other manner, are tomatoes that have typically lost up to 90% of their initial weight throughout the drying process. You are left with the delightfully dried tomato flesh that has an outstandingly powerful, intense tomato flavor despite the fact that they have lost most of their water but have kept their sweetness and nutrients.  

They are ideal for use in meals when the delicious tomato flavor should truly stand out. Humans have been using the sun to dry tomatoes for hundreds of years. To provide room for circulation, just chop the tomatoes in half and set them on a screen or high place. 

After that, lightly dust them with sea salt and set them in direct sunlight to dry. It is recommended to save the use of the sun-drying method for people who reside in warmer, dryer regions with reliable, consistent weather. 

Additionally, according to how hot it is, it may take a couple of days to a few weeks to complete. Your patience pays off with a delicious, yet nutritious, snack! 

Tomato Jam

Another thing you can do when you harvest so many tomatoes is make jam! Fresh tomatoes, sugar, and a few spices are used to make tomato jam, a delicious spread. It has been reduced to a jammy texture and is ideal on top of avocado toast or plain with cheese and crackers. 

All you have to do is combine the chopped tomatoes in a simmering pot with sugar, and spices such as cinnamon until it reaches a sticky, jam-like consistency. Then you’re left with a delicious spread that goes on just about everything! 

Bloody Mary Mix

If you love a good bloody Mary, consider making your own mix. There are a handful of decent store-bought options out there, but just like salsa, nothing beats homemade! You can use fresh or canned tomatoes for this. 

Preparing tomatoes is the fundamental step in preparing fresh handmade bloody mary mix! To make them cook down more easily than if they had been left whole, just clean them and chop them into tiny pieces.

Add fresh basil, pickle juice, hot sauce, a splash of Worcestershire, a pinch of oregano, a bit of salt, and pepper in a big pot along with the sliced tomatoes. Over medium-low heat, cook the whole thing for about 15 minutes, up to the point when the tomatoes break down, become soft, and exude their juices.

Use a handheld blender to puree the ingredients until it becomes smooth after the tomatoes have entirely boiled down and the liquid resembles a thick tomato soup. After that, refrigerate the contents in the refrigerator. This usually takes about an hour. 

Once you’re ready to make a drink, add in your favorite spirit and toppings such as olives, celery, or even bacon! 

Create Soap

Yes, you read that right. You can make soap with the extra tomatoes from your harvest. Numerous skin-friendly vitamins found in tomatoes assist improve our appearance. The additional tomatoes you have contain vitamins A, B, and C, all of which are known to have skin-lightening properties. 

Vitamin A aids in promoting skin cell renewal, which reduces the visibility of acne scars and blemishes. Because tomatoes are naturally acidic, they are an excellent skin exfoliant. The tomato’s citric acid aids in clearing the top layer of skin of dead skin cells and other pollutants that could otherwise result in skin discoloration.

Tomatoes can increase the oxygen flow to skin cells, which gives the cells superior food, helps them regenerate, and lightens the skin tone. Additionally, it includes salicylic acid, which aids in exfoliation and improves the skin. 

Specialists for skin say that maintaining a skin’s pH balance is essential for keeping it healthy and radiant. Tomatoes assist in restoring healthy, uniform complexions and the pH balance of the skin.

Can Them

It’s necessary to wash tomatoes. Although any type of tomato can be canned, Roma tomatoes, which are of the plum variety, are the finest for canning. Always use tomatoes that are imperfection-free. After blanching, cut the tomato’s top to help the skin easily peels off.

Place the tomatoes for around one minute in a pot of boiling water. Tomatoes should be removed and placed in a basin to cool. Pull off the skin once it has cooled enough for you to handle. 

For every pint, add a tablespoon of squeezed lemon juice. Leave half an inch of space at the top of each hot jar before adding skinned tomatoes to it.

Summary of How to Use Extra Tomatoes

1. Make salsa
2. Homemade ketchup
3. Tomato soup
4. Freeze-Dry Them
5. Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes
6. Tomato Jam
7. Bloody Mary Mix
8. Create Soap
9. Can Them