Anybody have a good green cherry tomato recipe?
The fortuitous beauty of last weekend allowed me to clear out half of my vegetable garden. Part of me really wanted to keep the tomato still planted, but the other side of me said “What the hell are you thinking, woman? The weather is good and those tomatoes are now half dead anyway. Do you really want to be doing this is the cold?!?†I really hate cold.
While the tomatoes are still green and alive, for the most part, they will not be producing anymore red tomatoes. I pulled a handful of cherry green tomatoes and thought that was the end. Then I got to the back of the tomato beds…
I am sure you all have areas like this in your garden (or maybe I am alone in this and I am a freak.). Little nooks and crannies where, when the season gets going and the plants get huge, you simply can’t get to. Once the tomatoes were out of the way, I weeded with a fury and found dozens of volunteer tomato plants snaking in and out of the weeds. Nary a red tomato to be found but there were dozens and dozens of green cherry tomatoes.
And being a good Scottish lass, I cannot simply throw those little green tomatoes. I must keep them… for something. I love fried green tomatoes, but the thought of breading and pan frying a few dozen cherry tomatoes is less than appealing. So I am turning to the public at large. Do you have some good recipes for cherry tomatoes? If you do, please post the recipe in the comments. Surely these tomatoes do not need to go to waste!
If you have enough of them, you could make green tomato pickles. They’re yummy and little green cherry tomatoes would make the cutest jars. The Ball Blue Book has a good recipe – they are sweet, spicy, and tangy at the same time.
If you’re patient you can leave them out at room temperature and they will ripen. I have left them out in a basket – just keep an eye on them so they don’t over ripen. Usually the fruit flies tell me that they’ve become too ripe…
I was going to say what Daria said. I know there’s also a way of ripening the green ones in a bag-is it with an apple? My Canadian pal just picks them all and puts them in her storage area and I guess they eventually get red. The little ones should get red quickly. I can’t believe I’m still getting Romas at the end of October! Strange weather!
I put mine in a blanket under the bed, they were all red within a week.
I have made pickled green cherry tomatoes from the Ball Blue book. I’ve also made green cherry tomato salsa in the past. I don’t do either anymore because, to be honest, I don’t enjoy them in proportion to how much work they are!
Instead, I attempt to ripen them indoors. Here’s my entry about ripening tomatoes in a paper bag: http://20minutegarden.com/2007/10/08/tomato-bag/
If the tomatoes don’t cooperate, they’re compost 🙂
Like you, I hate to be out there cleaning up in the cold and wet, and also like you, stuff ‘hides’ behind other overgrown stuff. dunno about the green cherry tomatoes, maybe they will ripen?
I have made this garden mint chutney and love it!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/102018
It calls for green tomatoes–why not cherry tomatoes?
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Ohh! I love love love mint chutney. I am going to try this. Thanks for the recipe! Thanks to everyone else who gave such great tips. Keep them coming if you have them.
I agree that with you in that I really like fried green tomatoes,but it is not worth the time and trouble to use green cherry tomatoes for that purpose. However I do find them just as tasty threaded on bamboo skewers along with meat,onions,fruit and any other vegetables for an extremely welcome addition on shish-kabobs. You get the taste and tang of green fried tomatoes on kabobs,with little effort. (love your site,btw).
Something I have done with green cherry tomatoes is make a batch of extra crispy, fried green tomatoes with them and use them on my salad in place of croutons!!!!! Nom nom nom!
I have a small garden,so did not have alot of green tomatoes left so I threw them in my pickle jar. After a couple of weeks,they’re ready to eat.
Sounds great! Recipe?????????????
Thanks
I just picked 22 pounds of green cherry tomatoes yesterday as we had our first freeze last night. Cut them in 1/2, stick your thumb in and coax out the seeds into the compost pot and put them in a deep glass baking dish single deep cut side up. Also cut up two onions in large dice and like 10-15 cloves of garlic. Toss this all with olive oil and salt and roast in a 375 oven until nice and delicious looking. Puree this and you can make pozole, a mexican hominy soup topped with shredded cabbage and sour cream. You can freeze the pureed green mess too, and make it later. You could also use this as a sauce for chicken.