[Growster...]

We had a glut of tomatoes this year, and have a whole freezer drawer full of them, so I'm reducing them to smaller packages, and it seems to work!

Does such a method take anything out of toms, other than water? The reason I ask, is that when we use the toms which were zapped then frozen, there is always too much water for most recipes anyway, so this should negate that little problem, but I wouldn't want to lose much else by slow boiling, if at all possible!

[mumofstig]

I always boil my skinned tomatoes, until they're almost a paste before I put them in the freezer. Perfect then, for making a pasta sauce or adding to a casserole/stew.

[sunshineband]

I always boil my skinned tomatoes, until they're almost a paste before I put them in the freezer. Perfect then, for making a pasta sauce or adding to a casserole/stew.

And they take up far less space than whole tomatoes too 

[snowdrops]

Other years I’ve roasted halved tomatoes-with skins- then once roasted ziz them in either the liquidiser or stick blend, then sieve seeds & skins out then put back in the roasting tin & reduce in the oven before cooling & freezing. This year I did all of that before bottling & pressure canning.

[mumofstig]

....then sieve seeds & skins out then ... reduce ... before cooling & freezing. This year I did all of that before bottling ....

I usually bottle mine, but didn't have a huge harvest this year, so just put them in small zip-lock bags in the freezer Much easier !!

[Aunt Sally]

You might lose some Vit C, Mr G

[New shoot]

You might lose some Vit C, Mr G

That’s very true but cooking increases the levels of lycopene, which is an antioxidant linked to decreases in the risk of cancer and heart disease.

I make a sauce to freeze by cooking onion and garlic in olive oil, adding skinned chopped tomatoes and cooking it down to thicken it and reduce the water content.  You can add whatever herbs you want as well, but I usually leave it fairly plain so it is more versatile.  Your zapped tomato pulp would work just as well 

[perris]

I dehydrate excess tomatoes; I don't know how long they'd keep in oil, because they always get eaten pronto! Reducing the water content that way enhances the flavour hugely. I've no idea what it does to the nutrients.

[Growster...]

Thank you Ladies!

I did wonder about Vit C at some stage, and as we zapped all the toms with skins still on, (I think I read that the skins do much for the vitamin content), I wasn't sure what happened when they'd all been boiling for a couple of hours! I asked Mrs Growster if I should add some onion etc., but she said that we use them for some recipes which don't require onion (doh), so just do the toms on their own!

Anyway, the upshot is that I've reduced around tweny-five bags down to under a third, so have all that room in the freezer for more billy-bargains on the cheapo shelf at Twongos!