Can You Freeze Tomatoes?

What happens when you freeze tomatoes

Ice crystals shred the cell walls that hold a tomato together, so what thaws is soft, weeping, and impossible to cut neatly. Flavor survives almost intact, which is why frozen tomatoes are excellent in sauce, chili, soup, and braises. One real bonus: the skins split and slip off under warm water, no blanching and no peeler. USDA gives frozen tomatoes 2 months, short next to most vegetables — use them within the season rather than saving them for next summer.

How to freeze it right

1. Freeze them ripe; cold storage stalls ripening, it doesn’t finish it.
2. Wash, dry, and core, leaving small tomatoes and cherry tomatoes whole.
3. Freeze loose on a tray until solid, then bag with the air pressed out.
4. Or cook them down to sauce first and freeze it flat — same tomatoes, half the room.
5. Date the bag.

Thawing and using it

Run a frozen tomato under warm water and the skin slides off in one piece. Drop them still frozen into a simmering pot — sauce, chili, curry, soup — or thaw in the fridge and pour off the liquid before it waters down a pan. Don’t plan on a sandwich slice or a salad.

Can you refreeze it?

Fridge-thawed tomatoes can be refrozen safely, but they shed more water each round — cook them into sauce first and freeze that instead.