How do I peel tomatoes?
Step 1 – Clean tomatoes and remove stems, eye, stickers then cut an X into the bottom.
Step 2 – Place them in a pan of boiling water for around 30 seconds or until the skin starts to peel off.
Step 3 – Place the tomatoes into a bowl of ice cold water for 5 minutes before peeling with your hands.
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What do I need to peel tomatoes?
You don’t need much to get the skins off your tomatoes, it’s a quick and easy process known as blanching in the cooking world. This is simply boiling something for a short time and cooling it down quickly.
To get going peeling your tomatoes, you will need:
- Tomatoes
- Pan for boiling water
- A bowl of ice cold water (the colder the better, use ice!)
- Small sharp knife
- Spoon to remove tomatoes from hot water
- Bowl to put peeled tomatoes in
And that’s it, simple as that! The taste of home grown tomatoes peeled and made into your favourite sauce is second to none.
How long do you boil tomatoes to peel them?
When peeling tomatoes you should boil them until the skin begins to roll back and peel, for your average salad tomatoes this is around 30 – 60 seconds. If you are using cherry tomatoes this will be slightly less, maybe around 20 seconds and larger beef tomatoes may take 1+ minute(s). After a few goes you will start to get a feel for the perfect length of time for peeling tomatoes.
Other ways to peel tomatoes
Peeling tomatoes in the Microwave
You can also peel tomatoes without boiling them first, to do this you can use a microwave to heat up the skin. This method is not as ‘clean’ as using boiling water as different microwave strengths and different size tomatoes make it easy to over cook them!
How to peel tomatoes using a microwave
Step 1 – Clean tomatoes and remove stems, eye, stickers then cut an X into the bottom.
Step 2 – Place tomatoes in a microwaveable dish and microwave on full power for around 30seconds or until the skin starts to peel off.
Step 3 – Remove the tomatoes from the microwave and place into a bowl of ice cold water 5 minutes before peeling with your hands.
What is the easiest way to peel tomatoes?
The easiest way to peel tomatoes is by boiling them in hot water, cooling them off in ice water and then peeling them with your hands. For a more detailed guide on how to do this please see the beginning of this article (How do I peel tomatoes?)
How to peel tomatoes for sauce
To peel tomatoes for sauce you can use the easy 3 step method detailed in the beginning of this article. It involves using boiling water to soften the skins before cooling off and peeling the tomatoes, ready to make your tomato based sauce. You can use this method to peel tomatoes for salsa or any other tomato based dish.
