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.
A fairly easy-to-prepare dish, not greasy, delicious. It is cooked in the oven with a small amount of oil. You can eat for breakfast and dinner. Your family will be delighted with its taste. The taste is delicate and appetizing. To heal.
This recipe is dedicated to eggplant lovers. A simple, uncomplicated dish for eggplant lovers. The taste of this dish is very spicy. You can use it as an independent dish or as a side dish. Try to cook and enjoy your meal.
In the summer I try to pamper my family with different salads. One of our favorite salads is an omelet with fried vegetables, mushrooms and delicious chicken. This salad is self-sufficient by itself, and you can even have a hearty lunch.
In my family, rice was not very popular and interesting. But one day, visiting her friend, she still managed to persuade me to try her rice and surprise me. The rice was so delicious, so juicy, so sweet and salty at the same time. My relatives eat this rice for both cheeks))) I share the recipe!!!)
Delicious and healthy breakfast. If your household loves zucchini and omelette, prepare this delicious dish for them on Sunday morning. However, as practice has shown, even those who did not like zucchini before, eat them with pleasure! Delicious, beautiful, healthy, fresh summer!
At the dacha, it’s a pity to waste time cooking everyday food, but no one canceled the meal, and rice with vegetables is a great option for dinner, for example. Delicious, hearty, flavorful, almost dietary, and if you use bags of boiled rice, it turns out very quickly anyway. To taste it?
We will prepare a lazy casserole – all at once, side dish and chicken, sauce and vegetables in the oven, without stirring and frying. Less than an hour and on the table is a fragrant juicy dish, with a crust and delicious baked sauce!
Chicken breast, in golden breading, baked with fragrant Basmati rice and vegetables is a simple preparation of a dish from the usual products available in the arsenal of every housewife, while not taking much time… it’s simple, fast, and it turns out a delicious dish for the whole family with children or for a group of friends! The rice turns out to be very crumbly and fragrant, the brisket is tender, not dry – try and appreciate the taste!
When posting the recipe for borscht, I thought – I probably need to have the courage to post the next version of this dish on our website! Do not judge strictly – I have weighed all the pros and cons and made a decision! We cook this borscht all summer in the country, right on the fire, very useful and really summer!
