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.
I don’t even know what to call this dish. The cooking technology is similar to “Lazy cabbage rolls”, only instead of cabbage, bell pepper. You can say that this is a vegetable stew with minced meat and rice. But whatever you call it, it’s delicious, beautiful, healthy, flavorful, perfect for a family lunch or dinner.
Tender, juicy, slightly sweet squash flesh and delicious savory filling-this is the secret of the popularity of this dish! Interesting shape and bright colors of vegetables excite the appetite and create a good mood!
Any white fish is suitable for this recipe. I have our Kuril perch. The main thing in the dish is a rich, spicy, thick tomato sauce in which fish is stewed. I immediately foresee the reviews of several experts in Libyan cuisine who will write malicious comments, for some reason this has become a frequent practice on our peaceful site. Let’s be kinder to each other and just cook, eat and enjoy the food.
There are quite a lot of such casseroles on the site, but they are very popular, both for a cozy family lunch and dinner, and for a festive table. In this version, I liked the recipe for minced meat. And, of course, an abundance of autumn vegetables. Delicious, healthy, satisfying and beautiful!
Autumn pastries, in my opinion, are the most delicious, most homely and cozy. Warms both literally and figuratively. I propose to bake today pies-boats with fried vegetables and cheese. Sorry for the indiscretion, but I boldly say ” unreal DELICIOUS! insanely BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS!”. Recommend.
Autumn is a great time of year, but the cold is slowly creeping up, and with them you want something satisfying. I found This recipe on a German website, thank you very much to the author. The composition may seem strange-cocoa, beer, coffee? The result, however, is a very sharp, dark, thick chili that appeared in Texas (and they know how to cook chili!) In 1999, as the winner of the “State championship in Chile”.
A great salad in the style of spicy Korean snacks, fans of these should like it. And if you also take into account the use of crop residues, small green tomatoes, this salad will appeal to summer residents-Housewives. Recommend.