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 offer you a delicious, flavorful, vegetable dish based on the Hungarian dish paprikash. In the season of the last vegetables from the garden, this dish will be in demand. The dish is universal, as a hot second course or side dish, or as an appetizer.
There are several recipes for winter preparations from green tomatoes on the site. But in the season of preparation for winter, many recipes for “conservation”, as they say, do not happen. Our tomatoes are almost gone, and it’s getting colder. Here, yesterday I collected the remains, half a bucket. If you like a sour-sweet-spicy combination in dishes, then this snack is for you. It will certainly please you and your guests in winter!
The mood color is red! Stuffing peppers and tomatoes. Who doesn’t like them? Everyone loves them! Let’s prepare this wonderful dish from red, fleshy peppers and tomatoes and enjoy the taste, aroma and red-a beautiful view of bright autumn vegetables!
Really wanted fish soup at home? Then cook! I called it “fish soup” because a little bit of fish soup, a little bit of fish soup-conder, and it turned out very soulful. I’ll cook for two, just a little. We’ll eat fresh!
I suggest you a snack of eggplant and string beans. This dish can be used as a side dish or cold appetizer. Now, in the season of preparations for the winter, I recommend that you prepare it as a preservation. Although, of course, you can eat right away.
Flavorful, bright, creamy gravy is a great addition to any side dish! For a full taste, mushrooms must be taken from the forest, not from the greenhouse (I have white ones, but others are perfect), and smoked paprika will add extra brightness to the taste.
Autumn is rich and generous with gifts. Today, vegetables and fruits are ripe, juicy, flavorful and rich in vitamins. It is now that we will get full enjoyment from them, using them daily. For example, we will cook familiar and beloved dumplings with potatoes in stewed vegetables, it is very tasty, especially when hot. Treat.
Very tasty, baked zucchini “cups” stuffed with minced lamb and millet. Under a cheese crust and with a spicy aroma of spices and vegetables. Zucchini looks great on a plate and is suitable for a festive menu.
A very rich hot dish, which in General does not require any special preparatory efforts, is prepared quickly and simply, and is suitable for dietary nutrition! Marinade based on mayonnaise, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar only enhances the taste of both vegetables and poultry.