Tomatoes

I don’t like tomatoes raw at all. I love tomato products like spaghetti sauce, ketchup, even salsa, but no raw tomatoes for me!

Last year, I planted some Beefsteak tomatoes in our ‘lasagna’ garden (more about that later). My husband and kids loved them, they said they were much sweeter than the store bought ones. Anyway, I really didn’t do much with them, they ate the tomatoes on sandwiches or by themselves. We gave some away.

So, this year I planted 4 Roma tomato plants, because they are more of a cooking tomato and I wanted to make some sauces. After I planted them, I saw some new plants growing that at first I thought were weeds. When I looked closer, I was very surprised to find that they were tomato plants! My only guess is that some rotten tomatoes had fallen in the garden last year and the seeds started to grow in the spring! So now I have 4 Roma and 3 Beefsteak tomato plants and we are getting tons of tomatoes!

Yesterday, I made a batch of spaghetti sauce using our Vitamix (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this machine!). I used 3 cups of quartered Romas (and other things for flavour) and after simmering I had 2-2 1/2 cups of sauce. The best thing about using the Vitamix for tomato sauces- no peeling or seeding!! So, not only do you not have to go through the trouble of peeling, but you get the extra nutrients from the skin and seeds. And, no, you dont find pieces of peel or lots of little seeds in your sauce, they get pulverized in the machine (which makes it easier to digest, too).

It costs next to nothing to make your own tomato sauces if you grow your own tomatoes. And, if you can it then you can have fresh sauce out of season!

For anyone with a Vitamix my adapted recipe is here. If you have a good blender, and you peel the tomatoes, you may be able to do this without a Vitamix!

Advertisement