Anyone who has grown tomato plants before will likely know the feeling of their tomatoes staying stubbornly green and refusing to ripen fully and turn red. But green tomatoes are a gift for home cooks and you can make really tasty dishes with them. Here are some delicious green tomato recipes shared by our home cooking community.
How to prepare green tomatoes for cooking
Once picked and off the vine, store your green tomatoes at room temperature. Chilling tomatoes in the fridge shuts down the chemical reactions that make them taste so good! Green tomatoes are firmer and less sweet than red tomatoes, so you should bear this in mind when you cook them. When you’re ready to cook them, simply wash your green tomatoes and remove the stem (this isn’t edible).
Green tomato recipes
Popular ways to cook green tomatoes include making them into chutneys and frying them, but you can be creative and use them in many different ways such as in relish, soup, fritters, salsa and curry … green tomato tarte tartin is reputed to be very good!
Fried green tomatoes
If you’ve ever watched the film Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop Cafe you’ll know that fried green tomatoes are a staple dish in southern America. Traditionally they are dipped in egg wash, coated in cornmeal and then fried in bacon fat.
Try Jessica Crain's fried tomato recipe for a slightly lighter alternative.
You can also add them to your burger like @wingmaster did!
Green tomato chutney and salsas
Another very popular way to use green tomatoes is to make chutney with them. You can add other seasonal ingredients like courgettes and apples too.
Try Bellhorse’s green tomato chutney recipe with apples, red onions and ginger.
Making salsa with green tomatoes can add a zesty kick to your dishes. Making a fresh batch of salsa verde with frozen green tomato puree tastes fresher than store bought jars.
Check out this California Farm Green Tomato Salsa Verde recipe by @HobbyHorseman!
Green tomato soups and stews
Yes, green tomatoes can be used in soups to add a tangy and unique flavor. Here's a great recipe by @purple_acied of how you might incorporate green tomatoes into soups.
Check out this Indonesian Sour Spicy Beef Soup (Asem Asem Daging) recipe for fresh and refreshing taste!
How do you like to use your green tomatoes? If you try one of the recipes shared by our home cooking community above, or any other tomato recipe on Cookpad, don't forget to tell us how it turned out. You can share the photo of your finished dish as a Cooksnap on the original recipe. Alternatively, if you have a green tomato recipe of your own, you can share it on Cookpad for other home cooks to try.