Cooking with Tomatoes & Tomato Recipes

When it comes to food, there’s no denying that we Southerners revere our tomatoes.  Everyone in the South has a connection to get local garden-grown tomatoes all summer.  Mom always had a brother or sister, or my grandma who had a garden and kept us in tomatoes for the season.  Many would argue that tomatoes are actually a fruit.  To that I say, “Whatever.”  Tomatoes are high in vitamin C and contain many other vitamins and minerals.  Nutrients in tomatoes are considered to be good antioxidents, or cancer fighters.  They are a good source of lycopene, an important nutrient for which they have received positive media attention in recent years. 

I have included some of my favorite ways to enjoy tomatoes, whether it be fresh or canned.  I’ve given you a few recipes, and many references for recipe hubs that feature one or more dishes that highlight tomatoes. 

Great ways to enjoy tomatoes included in this hub: 

Freezing and Canning Tomatoes

Stewed Tomatoes

Zucchini and Tomatoes

Okra and Tomatoes

Tomato Gravy

Soups, Stews, Chowders, Gumbos and Jambalya

Spaghetti Sauce and Chili

Sliced Tomatoes

Salads and Cold Sides

Sandwiches

Most of my relatives have large chest freezers, and put away fresh garden vegetables to enjoy throughout the year.  Mom always put fresh tomatoes in the freezer, like stewed tomatoes in the recipe below, but without the thickening.  A lot of people put tomatoes away in canning jars.  Check out these hubbers for canning tips: 

Marye Audet’s Home Canning

Buster Bucks’ How to Can Tomatoes

When I was a kid, we would have peas or beans, such as crowder peas or pinto beans as a main meal, a couple times a month.  Mom sometimes made stewed tomatoes to eat over the peas or beans. 

1 qt fresh tomatoes peeled and diced, or 2 cans diced tomatoes

½ to 1 tsp salt

1 to 2 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp flour

½ c water

Bacon drippings or cooking oil

1- In a medium saucepan, add tomatoes with juice and stir in salt and sugar.  Stir in bacon drippings or oil. 

2- Cover and heat on medium.  Simmer 30 minutes.  Tomatoes should get somewhat tender.  Use a potato masher to mash to your desired consistency. 

3- Dissolve flour in water.  I use cool water in a small plastic bowl with lid, shaking to dissolve. 

4- Pour about half of the flour-water mixture in the tomatoes.  Stir constantly.  After 5 minutes, add more flour-water mixture if you desire a thicker consistency to your tomatoes. 

It’s amazing how many foods I like, that I have been introduced to by hospital cafeterias.  This is one of those.  I can’t remember for sure which hospital it was, but it was over 20 years ago when I was an x-ray tech.  I have a vague memory of a co-worker, a petite woman named Ruth, who loved this dish and ate it with parmesan cheese.  You can find my recipe in my hub, Southern Cooking--Squash.  I prepare it similar to Okra and Tomatoes below. 

The way I make Okra and Tomatoes is essentially the same as how I do zucchini and tomatoes.  It is also similar to making stewed tomatoes, but I have repeated the steps here for convenience of printing and clipping. 

1 qt of fresh tomatoes, or 2 cans of diced tomatoes

1 qt okra, or 1 bag frozen slice okra

½ to 1 tsp salt

1 to 2 tsp sugar

Bacon drippings or cooking oil

1- Prepare okra.  Wash and cut off cap end.  Slice into ¼” to 3/8” thick rounds. 

2- In a medium saucepan, add tomatoes with juice and stir in salt and sugar.  Stir in bacon drippings or oil. 

3- Cover and heat on medium to simmer.  Tomatoes should get somewhat tender.  Use a potato masher to mash to your desired consistency. 

4- Add okra to tomatoes.  Simmer on low until okra is tender, about 20-30 minutes. 

5- I like to add a little flour-water to thicken, but not quite as thick as for stewed tomatoes. 

For a more complex flavor profile I suggest you also take a look at habee’s Okra and Tomatoes recipe. 

To this day, Tomato Gravy, a variation of milk gravy, is one of my favorite treats from my mother’s kitchen. I’ve mastered a lot of Southern dishes, but Mom’s Tomato Gravy always tastes better than mine. See my hub, Grits and Tomato Gravy for the recipe. You may also want to check out tomato gravy recipes from these hubbers, who make it very differently than I do, not as a milk-based gravy.

habee’s Tomato Gravy

StixBrown’s Gravy Anyone

The number one way we enjoyed cooked tomatoes at our house when I was growing up, was in homemade vegetable soup. It remains one of my absolute favorite foods. My mom would make a huge pot multiple times throughout the summer and freeze it in quart and half gallon containers. See my hub for my recipe, Homemade Vegetable Soup- Almost Like Mom’s.

Soups, Stews, Chowders, Gumbos, and Jambalaya are great ways to enjoy fresh or canned tomatoes. A tomato-based Hamburger Stew was a staple at my mom’s table when I was young. We also frequently had a Brunswick-like Chicken or Turkey Stew. Civic groups frequently made and sold these stews for fundraisers. Mom made it sometimes for the freezer.

Check out these hubs for great recipes of soups, stews and such:

My hubs:

Super Fast and Easy Soups, Stews and Chowders

More Soups, Stews and Chowders

Southern Cooking- Baked Macaroni and Cheese and Dunbar Macaroni

My Turkish-Inspired Cuisine- Green Beans and Rice Pilaf

judydianne’s S is for Soup

habee’s Vegetable Beef Soup

fastfreta’s Black-Eyed Pea Stew

habee’s Brunswick Stew

crazyhorsesghost’s World’s Greatest Gumbo

crazyhorsesghost’s Jambalya

judydianne’s J is for Jambalaya

I have no willpower over Spaghetti. Give me unlimited access to Spaghetti and I will eat myself silly. Now I can say “I’m just getting my lycopenes.” I like spaghetti with meat, without meat, with or without mushrooms, sausage, seafood or cheese. Yes, you could say a good, flavorful tomato base is my favorite part of spaghetti.

Chili or Chili Beans is another great and satisfying way to use tomatoes and get your lycopenes. Check out these hubs for spaghetti and chili recipes:

My hub, 12 Super Fast Cheap and Easy Pasta Recipes

John D Lee’s Ten Minute Bacon and Tomato Spaghetti

John D Lee’s Uncooked Garden Tomato Pasta Sauce

Springboard's Forget Ragu, Spaghetti Sauce from Scratch is Easy

judydianne’s Authentic Chili

Sliced tomatoes are a summer staple in the South. We would have super ripe, but firm, sliced tomatoes with just about every meal in the summer. I especially love them with any fresh peas or beans, especially butter peas or butter beans. I also love them with fresh creamed corn, and cubed steak, rice and gravy. I even like them with grits.

For something different, have a look at crazyhorsesghost’s Fried Green Tomatoes.

I enjoy fresh tomatoes in pasta salad and tuna salad, which you can find in my hub, Duke’s Mayonnaise- Secret Weapon for Tasty Southern Dishes.  I like grape tomatoes in salad.  You can find my favorite salad recipe in my hub, 12 Super Fast, Cheap and Easy Main Dishes.  See also the use of tomatoes in dips in habee’s hub, Quick and Easy Party Dips and Spreads, and for something really different, habee’s Cracker Salad. 

Sandwiches are another great excuse to eat fresh sliced tomatoes.  In the South, the number one favorite is probably the tomato sandwich.  All you need is bread, mayo, tomatoes, salt and pepper.  For me a tomato sandwich with Duke’s mayonnaise tastes like more (have another).  I really like tomato and sliced boiled ham sandwiches too.  And who doesn’t like a good BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich?  My favorite breakfast sandwich is a fried egg sandwich with swiss cheese, ham, tomato and mayo. 

If you’ve read this far, Southerner or not, I’m going to assume you like tomatoes.  So make a shopping list, stock up on tomatoes and get to cooking.  Enjoy your lycopenes! 

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