Tomato Glut? 15+ Easy and Delicious Ideas Here

If you have too many tomatoes, don’t worry, here are some quick, easy and yummy ways to enjoy them now plus how to keep them for later. These ideas and recipes also work if you just have a reasonable number of tomatoes!

So, without further ado here are my delicious …

Tomato Glut Recipes

Tomato Sandwiches

These need not be anywhere near as boring as it might sound, just look at my tomato sandwich!

I used wholemeal bread spread with a little chipotle mayonnaise. Over this I dolloped some Garlic and Herb Boursin and then topped all this tasty creaminess with sweet cherry tomatoes, a few salad leaves, crunchy red onion and a sprinkling of sea salt. After taking this picture I put on the second slice and devoured the lot washed down with some red wine, of course. It was so delicious that, writing this, I feel like eating it all over again.

Great additions to a tomato sandwich include …

Southern Living Magazine has a “recipe” for a rebel tomato sandwich in which you leave out the tomato but for some reason that seems a bit silly to me.

And here’s a rather different way to make a tomato sandwich – I’m sure you get the gist!

Another great way to use tomatoes in a sarnie is …

Pan Bagnat

This is a soggy but delicious sandwich from Nice in the South of France, they won’t mind me saying it is soggy as pan bagnat translates as wet bread. Here’s how to make Pan Bagnat.

Pan con Tamate

A very simple but very good Catalan tomato bread – instructions rather than a recipe …

~   Toast thin slices of good rustic and robust bread.
~   Rub one side of the toast with a halved raw garlic clove.
~   Now rub the garlicky side of the bread with the cut side of half a large tomato.
~   Drizzle with a little lovely extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with crunchy sea salt.
~   Serve asap while still crisp and warm.

Maybe a glass of red would be good with this.

Savoury Cream Tea 

For this use either plain not very sweet scones or, even better, cheese scones and fill with cream cheese and tomatoes. Boursin or similar is good for this.

You could even use Roasted Tomato Scones!

Rustic Cherry Tomato Tart

Actually whatever you are going to fill it with this is a great way to make a tart if you don’t have the necessary tart case or similar. Here’s the Rustic Cherry Tomato Tart recipe.

Fresh Tomato Vinaigrette

This tomato salad dressing is particlarly good with cheese salads or those contianing bacon.

Panzanella

This is a Tuscan salad made from bread, tomatoes and other good stuff. Panzanella recipe here.

A delicious variation on this, though very inauthentic, is to use delicious Greek Grilled Bread – adds a lovely crunch.  Italian/Greek Fusion!

Vodka Infused Cherry Tomatoes 

~ Using a toothpick poke 4 or 5 holes each in ripe cherry tomatoes. Pour over enough vodka (peppered vodka would be a good option) to just cover.
~ Chill for at least an hour, stirring occasionally.
~ Serve with toothpicks to grab them and a 2:1 mix of crunchy sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Drink the leftover vodka or add to a tomato based pasta sauce or soup or just marinate some more tomatoes in it.

Pappa al Pomodoro

My recipe for this Tomato and Bread Soup from Tuscany is here. It does include some tinned tomatoes but these can easily be replaced by the grated tomatoes (below), or not – whichever you prefer!

Fresh Tomato Salsa with Variations

450g ripe tomatoes – finely chopped
(you can peel them first if you like but it’s not essential)
½ red onion – finely chopped
1 garlic clove – also finely chopped
juice of half a lime

~   Stir everything together and add salt till it tastes great.
~   Chill till needed. It is best to let it rest for at least 30 minutes to let the flavours combine.

Optional Additions …

~   Add some fresh, (finely chopped of course) chilli, according to taste but being on the cautious side.  If you accidentlly make it too spicy add a little more lime juice, that’s what they do in Thailand.
~   Just a little chipotle paste will add spiciness and smokiness – I love it!
~   A little sugar is also a good flavour boost and can also offset over spiciness if you’ve overdone it a bit.
~   Fresh coriander/cilantro – I don’t much like coriander and it is quite a controversial flavour but it is authentic so if you like it go for it!
~   Other fresh herbs will work instead of cilantro – try mint or oregano or parsley.
~   Stir in a pinch of dried spice such as cumin, ground coriander or maybe chilli powder if you haven’t used fresh chilli.

Creamy Chilli Roasted Tomato Sauce

Enough to coat 225 g (raw weight) pasta and feed 2 people

a dozen or so cherry tomatoes
drizzle olive oil
salt and pepper and a few chilli flakes
tsp tomato paste
15g butter
200ml double cream
50g freshly grated Parmesan plus more for sprinkling

~   Halve the tomatoes and toss together with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and a light sprinkling of chilli flakes to taste.
~   Pop into a hot oven for about 10 minutes, during which time do the following …
~   In a medium sized saucepan melt together the butter and the tomato paste.
~   When melted add the cream and bring to a boil.
~   Immediately turn down the heat, add the cheese and stir till melted.
~   Simmer, stirring, till thick.
~   Add the roasted tomatoes and any juices.
~   Toss with the hot pasta and sprinkle with more parmesan cheese and maybe some Pangrattato.

Roasted Tomatoes

~   Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6
~   Cut larger tomatoes into wedges, halve cherry tomatoes, or keep whole if tiny.
~   Toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper plus some whole garlic cloves, if you wish, and/or herbs and spices.
~   Spread on a baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes till soft and collapsing.

These are Absolutely Gorgeous piled onto the Greek Grilled Bread already mentioned above. It really is a delicious thing to do with bread!

And are also lovely served over a cheese, for instance Feta or Boursin or sliced Mozzarella. Either way serve with good bread or flatbread, maybe even flatbread made from leftover mashed potato as in this picture!

Roasted Tomato Passata

Another good thing you can do, if you have quite a few tomatoes (larger ones are better here) is to roast them and then rub them through a sieve resulting in a lovely roasted tomato sauce or passata.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Having watched the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” one of my wait staff complained when I had these on the menu; feeling it implied that we killed and cooked out customers which we hardly ever did.

firm green tomatoes
flour
salt and pepper
olive oil

~   Slice the tomatoes reasonably thickly.
~   Put the flour, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl, add the sliced tomatoes and give them a damn good shaking.
~   Lift out carefully, shake off excess flour,
~   Heat a little oil in a frying pan and shallow fry the tomatoes till crisp and brown in places on both sides.
~   Drain on paper towel and eat.

This picture is rather old, I’m afraid, but on the plus side, the blue background is the Caribbean!

You can, of course, do the same with firm red tomatoes!

Grated Fresh Tomatoes

Grated tomato flesh is a good substitute for and quite an improvement on tinned tomatoes and, usefully, can be frozen for later.

A box grater is safest for this and use the largest holes it has.

~ Halve the larger type of tomatoes across the equator.
~ With the flat of your hand press the cut side of the tomatoes flat against the grater so that none of the skin (either the tomato’s or yours) gets involved.
~ Season to taste with salt and maybe a little sugar or chilli or whatever you fancy.  Read here about balancing flavours with judicial seasoning.

How to Keep Tomatoes for Later

See here for how to store tomatoes long term.

Freezing Raw Tomatoes

Obviously when thawed out these are no good for using raw but are fine in soups and sauces as they are soft and mushy when thawed.  Thaw at room temperature at which stage (bonus!) the skins will just pull off.

And here, to finish off, is a picture of the largest tomato I ever met!

Please leave this field empty

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm and download your free tips.