Tomatoes are widely used in cooking. They are used as an ingredient in appetizers, first and second courses, salads – both raw and ready-made. Salads with fresh tomatoes, tomato soups, sauces, pizza and pasta with tomato dressing have become quite familiar to us.
How to Cook Tomatoes
Tomatoes are successfully used for cooking various types of canned food. Fruits contain a significant amount of acid, which makes it possible to limit the production of canned food to sterilizing them in boiling water. Depending on what taste the cook wants to achieve, tomatoes can be pickled, salted, boiled sweet sauce, juice or drink. As a rule, sugar, salt, vinegar, citric acid and all kinds of spices are used in any kind of canning. With proper preparation, the product can be stored in a dark, cool place for several years. These preserves are always an excellent addition to side dishes, meat, fish, salads and an independent snack. A well–known tomato product is ketchup, a sweet tomato sauce with seasonings.
Combination with Other Products
Tomato is not desirable to combine with starch-containing and cereal products. It is recommended to eat tomatoes with herbs and vegetables that do not contain starch. It is advised to take tomatoes with proteins and fats, thus improving their assimilation. A useful combination is tomato and avocado, as well as broccoli. The usual combination of tomatoes and cucumbers is not as useful as it seems – the components of these vegetables, according to recent studies, mutually interfere with the assimilation of various components of each other. Tomatoes with liver or olive oil are considered useful combinations.
The Use of Tomatoes in Drinks
The most famous tomato drink, as expected, is tomato juice. It is consumed both in its natural form and with the addition of salt, pepper, celery, Worcestershire sauce, lemon and lime juice. In addition, tomato juice is used as a component of several alcoholic cocktails. Tomatoes can be added to vegetable smoothies based on yogurt, as well as to prepare diluted drinks with spices from them.
Types of Tomatoes
There are hundreds of types of tomatoes – small cherry the size of a grape, huge tomatoes weighing 600-800 grams, juicy for salads and fleshy for pasta, campari and – these are just the most famous of the many varieties. The color of the fruit, in addition to red, can vary from white, orange, yellow, green to purple and chocolate.
How to Choose and Store Tomatoes?
Ripe tomatoes have a rather rich aroma. If there is no smell, most likely the tomatoes were picked unripe. The peduncle should be small. When choosing tomatoes, you need to pay attention to the smoothness of the skin, the absence of cracks, spots and traces of blows. A fully ripe tomato is soft and springy, but you can choose it only if it is consumed immediately. Overripe tomatoes are always good for sauces and soups. In healthy fruits, the skin is thin, and the flesh is monotonous. If white thin veins are visible in the pulp, there are white spots in the core, and it itself is “plastic” to the touch – it means that there are nitrates in the tomato.
The storage conditions of a tomato directly depends on how ripe it is. Room temperature will accelerate the ripening process. Therefore, if you want the tomato to ripen, feel free to leave it warm. Ripe tomatoes are best stored at a temperature of about 12 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the tomato will cease to ripen, but it will not lose its taste and useful properties.
One of the most beautiful autumn dishes, in my opinion, is stuffed pepper. Especially when it’s cooked in the oven. The filling of this pepper is very satisfying – lamb, vegetables and barley groats. It turns out very juicy, delicious and satisfying!
Baked cabbage rolls from Peking cabbage, minced chicken with rice and cottage cheese with vegetables. Cabbage rolls I cooked on ketsi. Ketsi is a baking tray made of red clay, which can be put both in the oven and in the oven. Kezi is not covered with anything, only made of clay. 100% eco-friendly product. (Georgia.) The products in it are prepared in their own juice. It turns out a healthy and very tasty dish. For this dish, you can use any shape or a deep baking tray that can be put in the oven.
A very unusual and very tasty dish from Turkish cuisine. Translated from Turkish, “kurdan-kebab” means a meat ball on a toothpick. There is no universal recipe for this dish, each hostess prepares it to her liking. For the filling, you can use different meat and add different spices, and as a result, each time you will have a different taste. I used ground beef, for softness and juiciness I added a bun soaked in milk, onion and garlic. It turned out to be a very tasty kurdan kebab – incredibly juicy, soft, appetizing.
It’s so simple: everything that is in the lasagna is made in the form of soup. How do you like it? I liked it! And the most attractive thing about this soup is the speed of its preparation, if everything is at hand and has already been cleaned.
Eintopf is a dish of German cuisine, it replaces both the first and the second. I offer a thick, bright, fragrant soup with pumpkin and vegetables. This is just a dream for gourmets!
These bright, juicy, mouth-watering cakes cheer up even on a gloomy autumn day. Baking in the oven without excess fat makes them quite dietary. Cook for dinner!
This salad is ideal for cooking fragrant chopped vegetables in season. The combination of meat, fresh and baked vegetables makes the salad quite satisfying: it may well become a light rustic dinner. I advise you to try it!