How To Peel Tomatoes

For some recipes you might need to use peeled tomatoes. In those cases one idea could be to use canned tomatoes. But when they are in season, why not use fresh produce instead? Although skinning tomatoes can be intimidating at first, it’s a pretty simple process. In this article I am going to show you how to peel a tomato easily, no matter how ripe or unripe it is.

Why Peel Tomatoes?

The reason for this is simple. Tomato skin doesn’t cook very well and doesn’t look particularly appetizing in any dish.

So in most cases when you need to add tomato to a dish that’s going to be cooked, you should either use canned tomatoes or peel your tomatoes beforehand. This can be useful when making a tomato based sauce, soup or any dish.

Peeling a tomato

Peeling a tomato is extremely easy, and I will demonstrate it in the next few steps:

1. Take a bowl that’s big enough for the tomato (or tomatoes) to fit in. Make a cross cut with a sharp paring knife at the bottom of the tomato and place it into the bowl.
2. Pour boiling hot water on the tomato to cover it completely. The skin is going to be harder to peel where the water doesn’t cover the tomato fully.
3. Depending on the type of tomato, you need about 30 seconds to two minutes for the skin to soften fully.
4. Take out the tomato from the bowl using a spoon. Run cold water over it, this not only will make it more convenient to handle but also easier to peel.
5. Peel off the skin gently with the knife.

Blanching

We are basically blanching the tomatoes, which is the technical term for scalding an ingredient (generally vegetables of fruits) in boiling water for a short period of time.

The blanching time depends on the type and ripeness of the tomato. I would say for a very ripe late-summer tomato 30 seconds should be enough. For off-season supermarket (i.e. hard) tomatoes you might need 2 minutes.

The only thing you should pay attention to is not to cook your tomatoes. You just want to peel off the outer thin layer, the skin itself. Simply leave them in the hot water for 30 seconds first and try to take off the skin the way I described it above. I you find it difficult, place your tomato back in the hot water for another 30 seconds.

Using Canned Tomatoes

When a recipe calls for peeled tomatoes, you an as easily use canned tomatoes. These are usually summer tomatoes, harvested when ripe and sweet, sometimes much tastier than the ones you can by in a supermarket.

Just stock up some of these canned tomatoes in your pantry, and you’ll never again have to peel tomatoes!