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.
Visiting my beloved aunt, I tried this salad, in fact, very simple and insanely delicious. If you have a task in the vegetable season to diversify the table – this is an excellent and budget option. It is delicious both in the heat and in the cold.
A very simple, low-calorie and delicious salad with only three components, not counting the dressing. I made something similar for breakfast today. Only chicken can be boiled and seasoned to taste.
A very tender salad, thanks to the creamy sauce and chicken liver, and, at the same time, very satisfying (replaces a full dinner for me). Prepare a dish that is very tasty and really satisfying! An iceberg that has crunched can be replaced with ordinary lettuce leaves.
The classic “Caesar” was created by the Italian Caesar Cardini in 1924. The incredible combination of ingredients makes it extremely tasty, healthy and nutritious! I present you his classic recipe!
I want to offer you a simple but delicious salad with vegetables and fish. It turns out a delicious, juicy and not whipped salad. This may well replace lunch or dinner.
In general, this is not a salad recipe, like the most ordinary salad, but a filling recipe. Thanks to this, the taste becomes bright and saturated. I recommend cooking a double portion at once or more, store up to a week in the refrigerator. The longer you store the filling, the more its taste is revealed. I hope this dressing will help to diversify your dishes during lenten time.
The salad is simply amazing. Extremely light, fresh, juicy and very tasty! My daughter tried it and was so delighted that she cooked it for dinner the same day.
Everyone wanted to refresh the salad with their favorite dressing, and our family liked the taste. I hope that you will be able to appreciate the refueling. Very tasty, simple, affordable, beautiful, elegant. A very colorful and very tasty salad, just in order to dilute complex meat dishes.
