Three Incredibly Easy Ways to Peel a Tomato
Even if your favorite way to eat tomatoes is to “bite into them like an apple,” there will come a point in your life when you have to peel tomatoes. Perhaps you’ll be processing your summer catch or just making a pickled tomato salad . But you will arrive at the moment when these skins need to be removed.
How you should peel your tomatoes depends on how urgently you need the naked tomatoes. Luckily, there are three easy ways to get that skin off (and then save the skin and make the tomato salt for extra appreciation).
Use classic blanching and shock if you want to retain flavor and texture.
We first covered this classic life hack back in 2012. This is the most widely used method for removing skins from tomatoes (and stone fruits) and is fairly easy, if a little steamy. As we explained earlier, all you need is a sharp knife, a pot of boiling water, and an ice bath:
Just bring the water to a boil and before you throw in the fruit, make a small cross on the bottom of the peaches or tomatoes. Then gently lower the fruit into the boiling water and let it blanch for about a minute (less for more ripe fruits, longer for less ripe ones, as long as you like to loosen the skin!) Remove the fruit and immediately toss it into the bowl. full of ice water. The ice water stops the cooking process, and when the fruit is cool enough to touch, you can immediately remove the skin.
This is the method I use with my favorite tomato salad or any other recipe that uses raw, naked tomatoes. Tomatoes do not stay in hot water long enough to adversely affect their flavor or texture, and dipping in an ice bath prevents them from cooking.
Put them in the freezer if you’re lazy.
This is a method that can be used if you have too many tomatoes as it requires very little effort on your part. You don’t need a pot of boiling water or an ice bath, and you don’t even need to make a small cross on top of the fruit.
Place whole tomatoes directly in the freezer where they will keep for a year. When you’re ready to use them, place them under hot water, rubbing gently until the skin comes off. Throw them into sauces or any other recipe that calls for peeled tomatoes. However, I wouldn’t eat them raw – when frozen, the water in the fruit expands, rupturing the cell walls, making them a bit mushy. (You won’t notice it in a sauce, but you will notice it in a salad.)
Burn them if you only have a few
Boiling a pot of water to peel two or three tomatoes may seem like a bit of an overkill, but you can use the power of fire to get very similar results. Other than replacing water with fire, the procedure is much the same: make a small cross on the bottom of the fruit, then take it with tongs and slowly rotate it over an open flame (stove and kitchen burner work equally well). As soon as the skin begins to peel off the fruit, immerse it in ice water or put it under a cold faucet. Peel off the skin and proceed as usual.