“Too many tomatoes”?! Get out of here with that non-sense! Okay, I’m joking. I get it. We love our summer gardens but sometimes they over-produce or sometimes you come home to a cardboard box at your door teeming with red globes. You can’t bear to see them wasted but you also can’t fathom peeling another tomato to process it neither. Here is a list of ways to use all those fresh summer tomatoes! Pick the ones you like, skip the ones you don’t.
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12 Ideas for When You Have Too Many Tomatoes:
1. Tomato Sandwich (or BLT)
By the end of August, your mouth may have quite a few ulcers in it from eating fresh and very acidic tomato sandwiches. Maybe not but that’s my experience anyway, which is why I have to get creative in how I consume fresh tomatoes.
I like to reserve the FIRST vine ripened tomato of the summer for a tomato sandwich:
- white bread
- mayonnaise (Duke’s used to be my preference; now I make my own mayo)
- salt and pepper
- freshly sliced juicy tomato
Alternatively, fry some bacon, grab some lettuce, and make yourself a beautiful BLT sandwich.
2. No lettuce summer salad
What’s your garden giving you? Or the farmers market or local produce stand? Use it to get creative for this refreshing side salad that includes no lettuce. I can’t seem to grow lettuce in the summer anyway! It’s just too hot in North Carolina.
- cucumbers, sliced
- bell/sweet banana/ancho peppers (whatever kind but take it easy on the jalapeños, they’ll light you up!)
- tomatoes (cherry, grape, or diced)
- salt and pepper
- balsamic vinegar or Italian dressing
- avocado oil
- cheese (feta, cheddar, parmesan, etc)
Mix together in a bowl and serve. Pairs well with a juicy ribeye or smoked pork loin and a baked potato.
3. Caprese salad
- tomatoes (thick sliced is best)
- mozzarella cheese (buy the rounds from the deli or make your own!)
- fresh basil
- balsamic glaze
Slice tomatoes thickly as well as the cheese. Stack tomato and cheese at least 2 layers deep with fresh basil leaves in between each layer. Drizzle with balsamic glaze. Enjoy!
4. Tomato side dish
Keep it real simple with this one. Slice the reddest tomato you’ve got. Sprinkle it liberally with salt and pepper. Dollop with mayonnaise. Enjoy!
Alternatively, you can subtract the mayonnaise if you’re not a fan and drizzle with balsamic glaze or worse yet, Miracle Whip (yuck! But that’s my personal preference!!)
5. Fermented Salsa/Pico de gallo
I especially love to do with with all the tiny cherry tomatoes I get off the vine.
Rinse and slice cherries one way. Then fill about half the jar worth of tomatoes. Slice and dice half of a small onion, one jalapeño pepper, and one garlic clove. Squeeze 1 lime (or about 2 tablespoons of lime juice) into the jar and add salt and pepper to taste. Next, add in fresh cilantro. Let your heart be your guide on how much (or about 1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro).
Use a ferment weight to hold the foods under the juices. This will prevent mold from forming. Using a plastic jar lid is best to prevent rust from forming on a metal ring. Let the jar sit on the counter for 2 days. Open, remove weight, mix salsa and enjoy the added probiotics with tortilla chips or on some Taco Tuesday sourdough tortilla wraps.
6. Tomato Juice or Tomato Sauce
Rinse, skin, and add tomatoes to a Food Mill. All juice and tomato “meat” will come through the mill but leaves the seeds behind (skin too if you don’t want to skin the tomatoes! Just boil for a minute or two first).
You can then process this juice by canning methods (look up trusted canning methods for tomato juices!). Feed those seeds and skins to the chickens, pigs, or save some seed on a paper towel to dry out to be sown next spring for your garden. Heirloom varieties work best with seed saving.
7. Creamy Tomato Sauce (chunky or smooth)
Start by adding one small diced onion to a skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook down for about 3 minutes then add in tomatoes. As many as your heart desires. Cherry tomatoes work as well as sliced and diced large tomatoes. Cook tomatoes for about 5 minutes.
Next, add half a block of cream cheese and half a block of feta cheese. Allow the cheeses to melt down, stirring often. Then add in 1/4-1/2 cup of pasta water or milk to thin out the sauce.
Serve over bowtie pasta or any preferred noodles for a savory and creamy tomato sauce.
Note: Use an immersion blender to smooth the sauce or leave it chunky with no water or milk added for a delicious side dish to any summertime dinner.
8. Dehydrate tomato slices
When I am OVER tomatoes for the summer but they are still coming off like crazy, I like to slice the tomatoes and dehydrate them on 145 degrees for about 10-12 hours.
Remove leathery dried slices from the dehydrator and add to food safe heat sealing bags with a desiccant moisture absorber and store in the pantry for up to 1 year.
These tomato slices are wonderful additions to your fall and winter soups, stews, and chilis! And I’m always glad I dehydrated some summer tomatoes for fall soups later in the year.
Note: the skin and seeds are still within the dried slice and will be present in your soup/stew/etc. once it is rehydrated with liquid.
9. Give away the extras
Tomatoes will just keep on growing if you let them. A blessing and a curse.
If you have too many extras and no livestock to feed, give your tomatoes away! Be sure the person wants them, though. They may have more tomatoes than they know what to do with and don’t need your extras. (A great practice for any of your extra produce, really.)
Consider reaching out to the local food pantry to see if they’d like your donation of tomatoes to help feed your community.
10. Start a produce stand
Another idea for too many tomatoes is to perhaps consider a front yard produce stand or farm stand.
Consider an honor stand or set up and be present with the farm stand. This a good way to make back some extra money on your garden goodies.
Note: check with your HOA or local guidelines for peddling. Yes, even on your own property. Or consider “donations only” or “love offering” instead of set prices.
11. Freeze them!
Lastly, this may be my favorite “I’m so over these tomatoes” idea yet! My 95 years young Nana suggests just freezing them for later.
Here’s more information on how and why to freeze tomatoes.
12. Make tomato sauce
Tomato sauce is great for homemade pizzas, spaghetti sauce, and more.
Here is a super simple sauce you can make with tomatoes. There are ways to preserve it via pressure canning or water bath canning. Be sure to find an approved method for canning your sauce.
Another way to preserve this tomato sauce is to freeze it in freezer safe containers and thaw as needed.
KITCHEN HACK: make this sauce and freeze it in an ice cube tray. Once frozen, save in a freezer zip top bag. Thaw 1 or 2 cubes at a time when you need quick homemade pizzas! Make these tortilla wraps ahead of time and they keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and the freezer for 6 months. They make wonderful homemade pizza crusts in a hurry.
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I hope you were able to snag a way or two to use your abundant summer garden tomatoes from this blog post! I love a good kitchen or garden hack so when I find tried and true ones, I like to share them with you on this blog.
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