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.
This salad is simply AMAZING!!! I tried it at dinner with my husband and with great difficulty broke away from him when I was already scraping at the bottom of the salad bowl. This salad has a zest that gives it this incredibly spicy, fresh, new, unusual taste!
Very tasty, light and appetizing drink. When there is no time to eat or I just don’t want to, but I need to, I would love to make myself a drink and resume eating. In the tomato season, it’s just a godsend how to eat healthy vegetables without spending a lot of effort.
I don’t know about you, but when summer comes, I lean on fresh vegetables. Firstly, it is very useful. Secondly, if you have your own garden, then it is very budget-friendly. Thirdly, and most importantly, it is very tasty! Most vegetables do not require heat treatment, which significantly reduces their cooking time. I suggest making a salad with croutons, which can replace a full dinner.
Everyone knows what a canape is – this small French snack has gained popularity in many countries. Weighing no more than 80 g on the basis of dried bread or on a substrate of hard vegetables with a variety of fillings, mainly prepared for the festive table and buffets. Later they began to use skewers, but not for beauty, but in order not to get their hands dirty while eating. Today I offer you 2 types of canapes: with goat cheese and canapes with red fish, I have smoked salmon! Easy preparation and decoration of any table!
The homeland of this vegetable stew is the South of France. In ancient times, it was invented by monks who easily withstand the strictest fasting with ratatouille. In this version, ratatouille is prepared for the first time. Amazing!
The first time I tried hummus six months ago at a party, I bought it. He’s been bothering me ever since. Today I finally did it. How delicious! The greens I added to the hummus are parsley and coriander.
On the one hand, vegetable salad is the most common.But, it is only necessary to add an unusual, but very tasty dressing, as well as king prawns, pickled and fried in a fragrant sauce. The salad turned out to be extraordinary!!!
Very tasty, bright and quick salad. If you prepare the dressing in the morning and pickle the onion, then in the evening the salad will be ready in 5-7 minutes!