How to Freeze Tomatoes and Peppers

We’ve certainly had our share of tomatoes from the garden this year.  Maybe the coffee grounds and egg shells paid off!

Although I prefer to can them, I just can’t justify the time involved right now.  The girls are bringing in bowl after bowl of tomatoes that need to be dealt with, pronto!  So, I’m freezing them.

I primarily Roma tomatoes, I like the flavor, greater total flesh and less seeds.  Simplicity is the name of the game, I just cap the tomatoes, remove any spots, slice them in two and ‘thumb’ out the seeds.  Good enough. 

Some would say that blanching is necessary, but I find many sources that disagree.

  I don’t mind the skin, which seems to be one of the reasons folks like to blanche.  Frankly the skin gives a hearty texture to a meat-less meal if ground up.  I use my Bosch to grind up  my tomatoes, just pulsing a few times.

I also like to freeze tomato halves.  I just lay them on a cookie sheet, flash freeze for a few hours and stick them in a zip-lock bag – done!

I try to use up my frozen vegetables within 6 months and that’s usually not a problem around here.  I’m not exactly sure how long they keep in the freezer, once again, some sources say 12 months.

I also freeze peppers from the garden, slicing them like this.  Again, I flash-freeze and put them in baggies.  What a blessing to have already prepared veggies to cook with. 

It happens every single year…..something is growing in my garden from a plant (or more) that I didn’t (think!) I purchased.  I have bazillions of these little hot peppers in my garden!  They are quite darling and all, but we’re not into hot peppers.  I may hang them to dry and find some way to use them later…any ideas?

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