Roasted Tomatoes You Can Freeze for Six Months

Tomatoes come all at once. One week the stalks are naked, the next week the kitchen counter is rolling in red ripe tomatoes. Whether they came from a garden, a farm stand or a neighbor who planted too many, ripe tomatoes do not wait politely.

What are you going to do? Roast tomatoes today that you can freeze and eat for six months! Our chef shows you how to roast ripe plum tomatoes and store them in the freezer for months. Roasted tomatoes fit perfectly in a heart healthy diet, and they are a sweet ingredient that fits many healthy diet plans. 

Raw tomatoes do not freeze well. Their cell walls are mostly water, and water expands, so what comes out of the freezer is a soft bag of loose tomato skins and juice with very little left to work with.

Roasting solves that problem before it starts. The oven dries off the liquid and shrinks the fruit down, so what you freeze is concentrated tomato flesh rather than concentrated water. There is a nutrition benefit too, because roasting increases the absorption of lycopene, the antioxidant that gives tomatoes their color and has been linked to heart health.

The monounsaturated fat in olive oil helps your body absorb even more lycopene, and that fat supports healthy cholesterol levels on its own.

Plum tomatoes, sometimes sold as Roma, are the right choice here. They carry less water and thicker fruit walls than a slicing tomato, so they hold their shape in the oven instead of collapsing, and their sugars caramelize into something meaty and savory.

The method behind our Heart Healthy Oven Roasted Plum Tomatoes is short enough to memorize. It takes only 10 minutes to prep the tomatoes:

1. Heat the oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Slice the tops off six tomatoes and discard them. Cut each tomato in half lengthwise and lay the halves flesh side down on the sheet.
3. Drizzle each one with olive oil, then sprinkle salt, pepper and sugar evenly over the tray.
4. Add a small amount of herbes de Provence to each tomato.
5. Roast for 45 minutes to an hour. They are done when they have shriveled and given up their liquid.
6. Let them cool, then peel the skin away.

The added sugar is optional. It is there for balance, not sweetness, because it takes the sharp edge off the tomato acid during a long roast. The skins are edible and hold extra fiber, so peeling is a texture decision rather than a nutrition one.

Tomatoes take about 45 minutes to roast. This recipe serves six, and each roasted tomato is only 30 calories with 200mg of sodium, making it an ideal low sodium side dish.

• Let the tray cool fully before anything goes near the freezer. Don’t put hot tomatoes into a sealed bag.  They will steam and that moisture turns into ice crystals that ruin the texture you just spent an hour building.
• Once cool and peeled, pack them into an airtight container or freezer bags. In the refrigerator they hold for a week. In the freezer they hold for up to six months, which covers you from late summer straight through to the following spring.
• Freezing tomatoes in small portions rather than one solid block is worth the extra minute, because a half-cup portion thaws in the time it takes to warm a pan, and a large block does not. 

The slow roast at 325°F gives the best texture, but it is not the only way in.

Raising the oven temperature to 400°F cuts the roast time to 20 or 25 minutes, though the result comes out more charred and less chewy. An air fryer cooks a small batch of tomatoes at 350°F in 12 to 15 minutes, with the halves placed flesh side up. Cherry tomatoes work with the same seasoning at 325°F, and they need only 20 to 30 minutes because there is less fruit to dry out.

All three freeze on the same timeline.

A container of roasted tomatoes gives you a head start on dinner. They can go straight into a pot without thawing.

Stir a portion into Low Sodium Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Roma Tomatoes to deepen it, or into Heart Healthy Tomato Barley Risotto where the grain soaks up what they give off. They fold into Heart Healthy Tomato Soup and Low Sodium Tomato Soup in the same way.

For something quicker, smash a few onto Heart Healthy Avocado Toast, or scatter them over Heart Healthy Arugula Ricotta Pizza before it goes in the oven.

How long do roasted tomatoes last in the freezer?

Up to six months in an airtight container or a freezer bag. In the refrigerator they last about a week, so freeze anything you will not eat within that window.

Can you freeze tomatoes without roasting them first?

You can, but the texture suffers badly. Raw tomatoes hold a lot of water, and that water expands as it freezes and breaks down the flesh, leaving something closer to juice than fruit.

Do you have to peel roasted tomatoes before freezing?

No. Peeling gives a smoother texture, which matters in a sauce, but the skins are edible and carry extra fibre. Leave them on if you are heading for soup.

What is the best tomato for roasting and freezing?

Plum or Roma, because they are low in water and thick walled. Cherry tomatoes are a good alternative if you want something sweeter and bite sized, and they need a shorter time in the oven.