Sure, canning is fun and all, but sometimes it can be a little time consuming. Try freezing instead.

We talked to Robin Seitz, the nutrition specialist and Extension Agent at the Onslow County (NC) Cooperative Extension about the best way to freeze tomatoes (We’re experiencing a slight bumper crop this year of Roma tomatoes, so we’ve got a lot to put up right now. Find out more about Roma tomatoes from NE Seed here.)

The method is easy and quick and is a great way to put up tomatoes for soups, stews and sauces.

Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Core the tomatoes

Start by removing the stem scar of the tomatoes and the core. You can use a paring knife or a fancy corer made for tomatoes (and strawberries) like this one. You’re essentially trying to get that hunk of tough flesh out of the tomato so you won’t have to deal with it later.

2. Skin the tomatoes

Get a pot of water boiling good and hot and dunk your cored tomatoes in.

The skins will split, allowing you to pull them off with ease. Be careful, the tomatoes will be hot when you pull them out. It only take a moment or two to work.

3. Bag the tomatoes

Take the skinned, cored tomatoes and put them in freezer bags or any container with a lid. Robin suggests using containers (like this). The containers are reusable (which saves landfill space) and help prevent crushing the tomatoes. After bagging them up, put them in the freezer and let it do its job. You’ll have perfect tomatoes for sauces, soups and stews, Robin said, all year long.

As an added bonus, that little bit of cooking to strip the skins makes lycopene available.

Lycopene is an antioxidant with proven health effects and is the pigment that gives tomatoes their lovely red color. You can buy lycopene supplements like this one, but we think it’s better you get as much nutrition as you can from whole, natural foods.

For smaller tomatoes (roma, cherry, plum, etc.) you can just put them on a shallow baking pan and flash freeze them. If you have smaller type tomatoes, then you won’t have to take the step of cooking them to skin them. You will have to remove the skins later, Robin said, which could be tougher because of the freezing process, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

Enjoy!

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