You’ve been canning tomatoes, haven’t you? Peeling and crushing and milling and seeding? Me too. We do it because they’re precious. Too precious to waste.
After seeding 3 lbs of tomatoes for salsa (with a paper cut on my pinky–ouch!) I couldn’t bring myself to throw any bit of those tomatoes away, even the gloppy, slimy seeds. If Julia could make liqueur out of cherry pits, I could make something out of tomato guts. It didn’t take me long to push the goop through a fine-mesh sieve.
The resulting “tomato water” was certainly more watery than commercial tomato juice, but was pleasantly sweet and super refreshing.
From the seeds of three pounds of tomatoes, I only ended up with a scant cup of liquid. Clearly a cocktail was in order. We’ve been loving Hendrick’s Gin over here. It’s a bit more expensive than our usual, but exponentially better.
Into the shaker went 1 part tomato water, 1 part Hendrick’s, and a splash of citrus. We served it in a salt rimmed glass. There’s no clever name for the cocktail, but according to Facebook, the catchy name for the vegetable version of nose-to-tail is “root to shoot.” I’ll take it!
About autumn
Autumn Giles is the creator of Autumn Makes & Does and the co-host of the Alphabet Soup Podcast.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome! I don’t even strain the tomato juice – just cook it down while everything else is canning and have pasta for dinner on tomato night.
That’s far more practical (and responsible!) than my solution, Kate 🙂
I’ve been saving tomato water every time I did something “tomatoey” – I put it into ice cube trays and then pack everything into freezer bags. I’ve found it invaluable for perking up sauces, braises, all manner of things. The seeds and peels go into the dehydrator and then get thrown into the mini-processor to make a wonderful dry sprinkle – its all part of the nose to tail use of the tomato. I hope that more and more people use all this wonderful stuff!!!
These are such great suggestions, Cindy! I don’t have a dehydrator, but tomatoes are one thing I’ve experimented with drying in the oven with success!
I have about a cup of that stuff sitting in my freezer. I was going to add it to my veggie scrap stock the next time I made it, but I think I might like this idea better. I knew it had to have a good purpose.
I think stock seems like a perfect idea, but try some fresh too! It was so clean and refreshing.
{ 1 trackback }