tomato roasting question

I have searched and found several discussions about roasting tomatoes, but I am wondering if someone can give perhaps more details about what you do after you have roasted the tomatoes
IE, put them in a bag and freeze them, or can them?? Somehow my 51 tomato plants just ripened yesterday, I was out of town for only 13 hours.... not quite sure how it happened and so far I have many of them sliced and in the dehydrator, but the pictures of roasted tomatoes look SOOO scrumptious.
thanks in advance

Ohhh, I saw one a few days ago I think it was from llamamama, arg, I can remember the thread but they looked sooo good and after they were roasted they were frozen then used for sauces. Did you see that thread?

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13533-this-is-tomato-heaven

Found it! These look sooo yummy!

These were so delicious they didn't all make it into the blender. I ate a bunch as a snack. The ones that went into the blender ended up tasting like restaurant quality home made tomato soup that I paid good money for in the past. Of course modify the seasonings as you wish. I'm thinking of inserting slivers of fresh garlic to the tomatoes next time.

OK so first you roast them, then put them in the blender and then freeze them?
That is the part I did not get?
We got an outdoor oven this year with our miliage points.... and so this would be perfect, I have just read some places where they can them and others where you freeze them, but no details.
If you freeze them, what do you do when you thaw them out?? Just heat it up?
So Llama mom......I am a little slow ....what did you do then?

No problem !
I just seasoned them like in the other thread that was mentioned, called "tomato heaven" or whatever. I would clarify that the kosher salt was sprinkled on each tomato when layed out on the pan. Then roasted, blended, and put them in zip lock freezer bags. To thaw it out I will run the bag under hot water so the contents will slip right out into a pot to further defrost/cook with more seasonings into whatever sauce I want. If I want it as soup then simply defrost and eat as is.

After giving this more thought maybe I should add that if I don't use it immediately as soup then to treat the defrosted/roasted/blended tomatoes as the starting point for sauce. There are many recipes to make your own spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, etc. I would treat your freshly defrosted toms the same as canned tomatoes from store. Use any recipe to finish it. Hope I covered all the bases!

YUP you covered all the bases.
So I roast em, blend them, bag them, thaw them add them to pasta
GOT IT thanks so much
That is exactly what I am going to do, sounds SOOO much easier than canning, and tastier.

I will deffinately try this next time, I tried to can 1, yes 1 (don't laugh, haha) jar of spaghetti sauce tonight with 5 ripe tomatoes and I cooked them down like the recipe said to and voila, I had a half jar full of sauce. I thought maybe I will convert it to salsa bt wasn't sure how basil salsa would taste so I just saved the half jar and will add it to a store bought spaghetti sauce tomorrow.

PS, I had more big ripe jubilee toms bt couldn't convince myself to cook them into sauce... Next year I need more tomatoes...

Freeze them? Can them? NOOOOOOOO

I add wood chips (fruit wood like apple or cherry is great; so are wet lavender sticks) to the coals to add smoke to the tomatoes.

At the same time I fire roast peppers (you choose the heat level), and thick-sliced onions.

Cool the smoke roasted tomatoes and peppers to peel off most of the charred skin. Be careful to save the juice that leaks from the fire-roasted vegetables.

Add the fire smoked vegetables (tomatoes, onions and peppers-pepper seeds are optional) with their juice to a blender jar. Add the juice of a lime, sea-salt to taste and a handfull of cilantro. Pulse, keep it chunky. Serve with chips or over fish or chicken.

OK lavender Debs....
So you put them on a grill over a fire, or with tin foil? and once you are done, what do you do with the stuff from the blender that you do not use?
Do you freeze that?
I have tons of tomatoes right now, and so whatever I do I have to do in BULK.
I have a fire pit with a grate over it, is that where you burn the wood chips? sorryfor all the questions

I thought I would post some pics of how I put up tomatoes and summer squash. My harvest is just beginning.

Here is the harvest when I got home from vacation. I still needed to pick a basket of broccolli and peas.



Tomatoes sliced on the oiled sheet pan, chopped garlic and a little salt and Italian herbs spread over. If I had them I would squeeze more on. Squash is plain, it will end up in curry this winter.



Baked at 350* for an hour and a half? I forgot to check. I let it go just a tad too long, I like the liquids just beginning to caramelize.



Bagged for the freezer.


While they were in the oven I blanched and bagged the beans, broccoli, and beet greens.

Whoa Lavender Debs, your answer was terrific! I will try that way with the next round of ripe maters, thanks!

You can freeze beet greens? What are they like after thawing? I usually use these in salads and occasionally in soup. Thanks.

thanks Turan that looks great, what kind of squash is that?
I keep thinking that if I put my tomatoes on a grill all the fluids will drip down into the fire? OR on the barbecue.

Freeze them? Can them? NOOOOOOOO

I add wood chips (fruit wood like apple or cherry is great; so are wet lavender sticks) to the coals to add smoke to the tomatoes.

At the same time I fire roast peppers (you choose the heat level), and thick-sliced onions.

Where do you add the wood chips to? Sorry if I seem like an idiot

Last year in the fall I char broiled my bell peppers in the oven on broil until they were black and the took the skins off and froze them like that.
They were on cookie sheets with tin foil on them .

cpl100 wrote:You can freeze beet greens? What are they like after thawing? I usually use these in salads and occasionally in soup. Thanks.

Like cooked spinach. These are the big greens from harvesting the mature beet roots. We separate the stems from the leafs and blanch both. The stems will go in soups or stir fry curry. The leaves can go in those too but we usually use them for ravioli stuffings for holidays.

GWN wrote:thanks Turan that looks great, what kind of squash is that?
I keep thinking that if I put my tomatoes on a grill all the fluids will drip down into the fire? OR on the barbecue.

The yellow patty pan are Sunburst hybrid I got from Territorial.

I am curious about the grilling too. We have kabobed cherry tomatoes before but that is not as much liquid as a whole grill full of tomatoes .... Maybe that works best with paste tomatoes? :scratch:

The leaves can go in those too but we usually use them for ravioli stuffings for holidays.

Now that sounds yummie....
Beet greens in ravioli.
Making ravioli is a biggie on my to do list for this next winter.... Maybe I will ask for the recipe then

Sorry this took so long....I looked at it on Sunday about 20 minutes before it was time to go to church. Meant to answer it yesterday.....here I am today.

GWN wrote:OK lavender Debs....
So you put them on a grill over a fire, or with tin foil?

On the grill. You can use wood that has burned down to glowing embers (like when you camp and cook) or you can use briquettes with soaked wood chips or lavender stems. Lavender is more difficult to control. The idea is to get sweet smoky heat. For the onions and garlic (I forgot to mention garlic in my post) I use a BBQ vegetable wok. We have tried to use skewers but when the onion gets soft it still falls off of the grill into the fire. Usually I brush oil on the sliced onions before I grill them. I own tin foil but almost never use it. I don't like aluminum to come into contact with something I will eat.

Before making the salsa, remove the skin from the roasted peppers but leave it on the tomatoes. The crispy skin should also come off of the garlic. The onions should be peeled and sliced before they are grilled so they can go right into the blender jar.

and once you are done, what do you do with the stuff from the blender that you do not use?
Do you freeze that?
I have tons of tomatoes right now, and so whatever I do I have to do in BULK.

It took me a little while to realize that the first sentence was connected in thought to the next two. We all but lick the blades clean (it is that good!) and there are no left-overs. In my Everett garden, unless I buy tomatoes, there is NEVER "tons of tomatoes" to take care of. I am VERY blessed if 8 all come ripe at the same time and I can make salsa. I imagine the excess can be canned. There are so many strong elements in salsa that could change flavor or strength if it is frozen instead of canned. I would personally freeze the elements separately if I was going that direction. Good question.

I have a fire pit with a grate over it, is that where you burn the wood chips? sorryfor all the questions

No. I do not know if you can find this where you live BUT we can buy bags of BBQ chips. Generally they are Mesquite, Hickory or some kind of fruit wood. A couple of handfuls of chips are put into a bowl of water to soak while the briquettes heat up. (BTW I NEVER use kerosene aka starter fluid or lighter fluid, always use a chimney to start briquettes). After the briquettes are spread out scatter the wet chips on the hot coals. They will smoke instead of burn.

There is a local farmers market on Wednesday. I will need to go there for Eastern Washington peppers. If I can score a few and I am feeling creative I will do a Garden to table video on smoked salsa.

Thank you SOOO much deb
I do think we can get those barbecue chips here, we have a gas barbecue but also a fire pit, so what I might do is to get some of those chips, (or prune an apple tree) ( we have a wild apple tree WAYYYY out in the forest behind our house that usually the deer prune)
We are on fire ban right now so for now I will roast in the barbecue. I lived for many years on coastal oregon, and could only grow tomatoes indoors, so this is a real treat for me and why I totally overdo it every year.
We had a big storm warning on Monday and so I picked 80 lbs of red tomatoes, and have them tucked downstairs in a cold room for more roasting today.
Then there was no storm ... Thank you for your thoughts on tin foil. I do use it occasionally, but could just as easily use a roaster
Here are some pictures of my roasting on Monday, did not take the final pictures as got busy making supper. BUT I put in garlic oregano and basil from garden, roasted over barbeque for about 3 hours at 250, then let it cool and put it all in the blender and on Monday used it as pizza sauce on grilled pizzas, but am anxious to try it on pasta etc. I have frozen a few containers of it. THANKS EVERYONE FOR INFORMATION



I am going to try your method over our fire pit in the fall with my peppers, hoping they will be ripe by then