A home garden is a blessing in many ways. It’s fun to see the daily growth of the plants and eventual blooming and growth of vegetables or herbs. Tomatoes, in particular, are easy to grow even for non-gardeners like me. But they seem to ripen in waves, with large quantities in each wave. So, the challenge is how to effectively handle too many tomatoes at once.
I’m not a big tomato fan, but I can tolerate grape tomatoes much better than the big ones. Mine this year are SO very “grapey” they hang in clusters. And there are so many, I was bound to have times too many would get ripe at one time. What could I do to preserve ’em in order to use ’em over time?
Oven “sun-dried” tomatoes
I used this recipe from gimmesomeoven.com in January to handle a pint of store-bought grape tomatoes that began to shrivel way too early. More recently, it helped me process my own grape tomatoes so I could use ’em over a couple of weeks rather than all in one day.
Even if they’ve begun to shrivel a little bit, you can still slice ‘em in half with a sharp knife (you don’t want to squish them) and roast ‘em at 250 degrees till they’re dried (usually 2.5 to 3.5 hours).
Once they’ve cooled, store ‘em covered with olive oil in a container in the fridge for 2 weeks. The oil will congeal in the cold, of course, but it will liquify as soon as you cook with ‘em.
How to use oven “sun-dried” tomatoes
You could do something as simple as adding these babies as a pizza topping. Or substitute ‘em for commercial sun-dried tomatoes in ANY recipe.
One of my favorite Whole30 compliant recipes that calls for ‘em is paleorunningmomma.com’s Garlic Tuscan Shrimp. The rich creamy sauce with the bold flavor and color of these jewels added to the garlic, spinach, and shrimp makes the whole dish tasty AND beautiful…super easy and quick, too!
Frugality at work again!
Frugality is all about using up everything, not letting anything go to waste, and thus making the most of your hard-earned dollars. Watch your produce closely, but when you see it’s gonna get out of hand, be prepared, and you can preserve it to enjoy on YOUR schedule.
Need other ideas for preserving an overabundance of produce? Check out these related posts…
