Can You Freeze Tomatoes?
Yes, you can freeze tomatoes for up to 12 months. They become soft and watery when thawed, making them unsuitable for fresh eating but excellent for sauces, soups, stews, and cooked dishes. You can freeze them whole, chopped, or as puree.
Key Takeaways
- Freezing tomatoes is an excellent way to preserve a summer garden harvest.
- Cherry and grape tomatoes freeze whole particularly well and can be used directly in cooked dishes like frozen soup.
- Frozen raw tomatoes are very soft when thawed; plan to use them immediately in cooking.
Explanation
Freezing tomatoes is an excellent way to preserve a summer garden harvest. For fresh tomato storage, see should you refrigerate tomatoes. The high water content means texture changes dramatically, but flavor remains good for cooking purposes. Frozen tomatoes work beautifully in any recipe where they will be cooked.
The easiest method is to freeze tomatoes whole: wash, dry, remove stems, and place on a baking sheet to freeze individually before transferring to bags. The skins slip off easily when held under running water while still frozen.
For convenience, you can also blanch, peel, and chop tomatoes before freezing, or cook them into sauce or puree first. Frozen tomato sauce is ready to use directly in recipes without additional processing.
Tomatoes contain lycopene, a carotenoid antioxidant responsible for their red color, which remains highly stable during freezing. Research shows that frozen tomatoes retain 85-95% of their lycopene content after 6 months at 0°F (-18°C). Interestingly, cooking tomatoes before freezing increases lycopene bioavailability because heat breaks down cell walls and releases lycopene from its protein complexes. A single cup of cooked frozen tomato provides approximately 7-8mg of lycopene, which is comparable to fresh.
Roma and San Marzano tomatoes are the best varieties for freezing because they have a higher flesh-to-liquid ratio (roughly 60% flesh versus 40% for standard slicing tomatoes) and fewer seeds. This means less water to form damaging ice crystals and a meatier result after thawing. For garden harvests, freezing whole Romas on a tray and then bagging them provides a quick preservation method during peak season when dozens of tomatoes ripen simultaneously. A single Roma tomato weighs about 2 ounces, so 8-10 frozen Romas equal one 14-ounce can of tomatoes for recipe substitution.
Things to Know
- Cherry and grape tomatoes freeze whole particularly well and can be used directly in cooked dishes like frozen soup.
- Frozen raw tomatoes are very soft when thawed; plan to use them immediately in cooking.
- Tomato paste can be frozen in tablespoon dollops for easy portioning.