This one’s all about tomatoes! If you’ve got some fresh tomatoes. you may be wondering how to make tomato juice or if you can freeze tomatoes.

We’ll show you how to Freeze Garden Tomatoes and how to make Tomato Juice. Let’s get started!

Freeze Tomatoes Whole

It’s so simple to peel and freeze tomatoes to save for chilis, stews, or spaghetti dishes in the winter. Here’s how:

1. 1. Blanche your tomatoes–drop them in a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds.

1. 1. After 60 seconds, drop your tomatoes in ice water. Let them chill for 5 minutes.

1. 1. Cut out the core with the Rada Tomato Slicer then peel the skin right off as seen in the picture above.

1. Leave your tomatoes whole, cut them into quarters or chop them. Store in air-tight freezer container (jar, container or freezer bag). Be sure to label with the date. These will keep for 12 months.

Tomato Juice Recipe

Tomato juice is great for drinking, but it’s also great for using in soups, stews, chilis, salsas, lasagna, and lots more! Luckily this Tomato Juice recipe is a breeze to make.

Cut fresh tomatoes into wedges using the Rada Tomato Knife and simmer in a saucepan for 10-15 minutes.

Press through a sieve or food mill, catching juice below.

Add salt to taste; let cool and serve.

To freeze pour into freezer containers, leaving ½” headspace. Seal, label, and freeze for up to 12 months. It’s that easy to make tomato juice at home!

Growing Tomatoes: 5 Gardening Tips

1. Choose a bright, airy spot. Tomatoes need at least 10 hours of sunlight a day.
2. Move your tomato plant between two spots to avoid bad bacteria.
3. Pass up overgrown transplants. They just won’t be up to par.
4. Bury the stems and new roots will sprout!
5. It’s best to water once every five days into the soil, not on the leaves.

No Squashing!

The Rada Tomato Slicer is the best tool for any recipe or task that involves tomatoes. It cuts smoothly and won’t squash your tomatoes! This is a must if you love making BLTs or stacking tomato slices on hamburgers. No kitchen is complete without it.

Order your own Rada Tomato Slicer at the online Rada Kitchen Store!

Try these other recipes using a tomato slicer: How to Make Tomato Pie and our Tomato Feta Pasta Salad Recipe.

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Rada Cutlery is the best way to raise the funds your group needs! Every year, tens of thousands of groups partner with Rada to raise money for good causes. Churches, clubs, schools, sports teams, civic organizations, and more make the money they need with a Rada fundraiser.

Check out our fundraising catalog to learn more about Rada products and fundraisers!

Learn more about why a Rada fundraiser is what’s best for your group!

How to Freeze Tomatoes

How to Make Tomato Juice

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Freezing Tomatoes Video Transcript:

Hi Kristy at the Rada Kitchen. Today I’d like to show you how to freeze your garden tomatoes. If you have an abundance of tomatoes, it’s a great way to go back in the wintertime and use them in your chili or stews.

It’s really easy—you blanche them. You blanche them whole, you don’t peel anything. You’ll need a large pot of water, boiling. And we’re going to drop our tomatoes in there. The good thing about this too is that you can do this as your tomatoes get ripe—you can do a whole bunch or just a few.

So I’m going to use my vine tomatoes. It’s best to let them ripen on the vine. You want them blemish-free and soft enough to push in but yet firm. So we’ll drop those in the boiling water for about 60 seconds. So place the whole tomato in the boiling water. Set your timer for about 60 seconds.

Have a bowl of ice water handy and after 60 seconds, plop the tomatoes into the ice water. Then you’ll want to let those chill. So after the tomatoes have chilled for about 5 minutes, they’re ready to peel. So the first thing I do is I take the Rada Tomato Slicer and cut out that core. Then the fun part is peeling them and it peels right off.

Now you can leave these whole, you can slice them into quarters, you can dice them. I’m going to slice mine in quarters, I’m going to use it in chili and lasagna. So we’re going to put our tomatoes in a freezer container. You could use containers, jars, I like to use freezer bags because you can lay them flat and they don’t take up as much space. So just put in the quantity you want in each bag. You can leave them whole, you can dice them more. Let all the air out. Make sure you label your tomatoes, especially with the year. You can store them in the freezer and enjoy your fresh home-grown tomatoes in the middle of winter.

End of Video Transcript

Simple Tomato Juice Video Transcript:

Hi Kristy at the Rada Kitchen. I’d like to share with you a way to make simple tomato juice out of your fresh tomatoes that maybe you grew or you got at a farmer’s market. I got this recipe out of a recipe book we offer called “Fresh to Freezer.” It has cucumbers, green beans, corn—every vegetable you can think of that you don’t have to do hot water baths, don’t have to can, you just put them in the freezer.

This one’s really simple. You don’t have to peel the tomatoes or core them. All you do is slice tomatoes into wedges and put the wedges in a saucepan. This is the Rada Tomato Slicer. No kitchen is complete without it. Our second-best seller behind the Paring Knife. I think it would be our best seller—it just hasn’t been out as long as our Paring Knife.

As you can see, those teeth cut right through that skin. So if you have soft tomatoes, it’s not going to smash them. You could slice super thin tomatoes. This also works great on crusty breads, onions, just about anything.

So we have our tomatoes in a saucepan. We’re going to simmer these on the stove for 10-15 minutes. So this is how the tomatoes look after you’ve cooked them for 10-15 minutes. You’ll want to let them cool slightly then put them through the strainer.

I’m just using a regular strainer. If you don’t like seeds in it, you might want to put cheesecloth in it. You just pour your tomatoes from the pan to the strainer. Then just keep stirring it around and you can see all the juice coming out. I like to stir and press. What you’re going to end up with are the peelings and the stems. In your bowl, you’ll have the juice,

So you can throw away the peelings and stems, put it in your compost pile. On the farm, we used to feed them to the pigs. So then you can season the tomato juice. I like to use a little sea salt. Give it a little taste test. Now it’s ready to serve and cool it. You can put it in jars or freezer bags and freeze it to put in chilis or to drink. It will store for 12 months in the freezer.

And that’s how to make simple tomato juice. You can cool it and serve it fresh, or you can store it in the freezer in glass jars that leave at least half inch head space or in these handy freezer bags that you can store flat, takes up less space in your freezer. That’s just one of the vegetables you can freeze in our “Fresh to Freezer Methods & Recipes” cookbook.

End of Video Transcript