Tomatoes (Fresh)

Description

1. Buy Fresh Tomatoes Online

Can you freeze tomatoes

Yes , you can ; simply wash tomatoes and store in the freezer using tightly sealed freezer bags or nylon bags.

How are tomatoes good for you

Fresh tomatoes are rich in vitamins and antioxidants, making them very good for improving skin health, strengthening the immune system and protecting cardiovascular system.

what to do with a lot of fresh tomatoes

There are various ways to preserve a large quantity of  fresh tomatoes;

• You can wash fresh tomatoes, portion them into small quantities and store in ziploc (freezer) bags or nylon bags; make sure the bags are airtight to retain taste and flavor of the tomatoes.
• You can also blend  and store in glass jars for months; find the method for doing this below

Wash tomatoes and blend , boil till the liquid in it completely dries and it becomes paste (be careful not to burn the paste). Get glass jars that are durable and airtight (you can use glass old jam, salad cream or mayonnaise glass jars); separate jars from their covers ;wash them properly and boil them in water for say 5 minutes.

Transfer the paste into the cleaned jars, add in a pinch of salt , a little oil, tightly cover and transfer jars into a pot of water. Leave the jars to submerge in the pot of water then boil the pot of water for another 10-15 minutes.

You can then leave the jars to cool then store in cartons in a cool or dry place away from sunlight .

Once you open up a jar for use and can’t use it up at once, transfer what’s left into the fridge.

Check out for bubbles in the jars before and during storage, once you can notice any bubbles in the jar, it means you probably did not adhere to the process strictly enough. Try to consume the contents of any of the jars with bubbles as soon as you can before it spoils.

This method can be used to store tomatoes for up to a year.

 

Benefits of fresh tomatoes

Tomatoes are rich in vitamins and anti oxidants that are good for skin health, boost the immune system, helps with cardiovascular health, boosts vision and aids digestion.

 

calories in fresh tomatoes

100grams of tomatoes contains about 18 calories

 

do fresh tomatoes have sugar

100grams of tomatoes contains about 3.6grams of sugar which is less than 4% of the what the tomatoes contain.

how to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes

There are various methods for preparing sauce from tomatoes; however , here is the Nigerian method for preparing sauce from fresh tomatoes.

Ingredients

• Tomatoes
• Atarodo (scotch bonnet)
• tatashe (Bell pepper)
• onions
• Vegetable oil
• seasoning (cubes, salt, curry, thyme)
• protein (meat, fish)
• stock (from boiling protein) optional

Method

• Blend tomatoes, tatashe, atarodo and onions together to obtain a pepper mix.
• Place a clean frying pan on a burner, pour in vegetable oil, allow the oil to heat up a bit then pour in the pepper mix.
• Leave the pepper mix to thicken, add in stock , in the absence of stock you can add in seasoning in desired quantities and stir.
• Add in any proteins desired (make sure the meat is tender before adding in , otherwise, add it in earlier) . If you are cooking with meat, you can stir but if its fish, simply swirl pot so that pepper can sip into proteins.
• Check for taste and add in more seasoning and vegetable oil if required , leave pepper mix to fry (be careful not to burn sauce). once the sauce is covered with bubbles, sauce should be ready to serve.

This sauce can be enjoyed with white rice, yam, spagetti (pasta), bread…..

Nutritional value of fresh tomatoes

The main component found in tomatoes is water, about 95% of tomatoes is made up of water. Other nutritional contents found in tomatoes include

• Carbohydrate
• Lycopene
• Vitamin C
• Protein
• Sugar
• Fiber
• Potassium
• Folate (Vitamin B9)
• Vitamin K1
• Beta carotene
• Naringenin
• Chlorogenic acid

 

 

At what time of the year is tomato in season in Nigeria?

Tomatoes are usually in season between September and April

 

 

 

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