What can I make with green tomatoes?

Hi there, After I recieved some great suggestions about what I can do with nettles, I wondered if any of you have any ideas about what I can make with green tomatoes aside from chutney and jam, please? Many thanks. Best wishes, Gemma

Green tomato curry.
Green tomato-based salsa
Fried green tomato
Make green tomato jam
Make pasta sauce with them


Anything you can do with tomato, you can do with green tomato - the flavor palette is just going to be more on the side of sour&acidic rather than sweet&acidic.
Adding sugar to sour green tomatoes is quite tasty imo

You can fry them. It's a southern thing, and they're delicious. Basically sliced a 1/4 or 1/2 inch thick, breaded and pan fried. An internet search for fried green tomatoes will yield a variety of recipes, and the 1990's movie by the same name.

You can make fermented dill pickles with green tomatoes at the end of the season just exactly like you would with cukes and they're pretty good. (I do it with garlic, bay, and chiles -- dill is optional.)

You can fry them "keto style" too..  dipped in egg and then parmesan cheese and fried,  yum.    I made some green tomato salsa and fermented it too, with some onion and jalapeno.  

green tomato chili
I'm fermenting green tomatoes in a hot sauce

You can make one of my favorite relishes, it is called Chow Chow.

It contains green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and bell pepper which make a southern variety.

Another recipe is to turn those green tomatoes into red tomatoes by putting the in a paper sack close and leaving them on your counter.  check the bag every so often until you have red tomatoes.  This only works for tomatoes that have not been refrigerated.

Similar to the chow chow, a traditional pickle relish - sweet, or dill, can also be made with them. Or you can also slice them thin, lightly salt, and dehydrate them into tasty, chips, that go great with dips, sandwiches, or whatever.

Toko Aakster wrote:Green tomato curry.
Green tomato-based salsa
Fried green tomato
Make green tomato jam
Make pasta sauce with them


Anything you can do with tomato, you can do with green tomato - the flavor palette is just going to be more on the side of sour&acidic rather than sweet&acidic.
Adding sugar to sour green tomatoes is quite tasty imo

Toko; many thanks for these delicious-sounding suggestions. I especially like the idea of the pasta sauce. All the best, Gemma

James Freyr wrote:You can fry them. It's a southern thing, and they're delicious. Basically sliced a 1/4 or 1/2 inch thick, breaded and pan fried. An internet search for fried green tomatoes will yield a variety of recipes, and the 1990's movie by the same name.

James; green fried tomato sounds amazing. I shall give them a go and let you know what I think. All the best, Gemma

Christopher Weeks wrote:You can make fermented dill pickles with green tomatoes at the end of the season just exactly like you would with cukes and they're pretty good. (I do it with garlic, bay, and chiles -- dill is optional.)

An intriguing recipe, Christopher - thank you. I’m really excited about fermenting right now so your suggestion is perfect. All the best, Gemma

Heather Staas wrote:
You can fry them "keto style" too..  dipped in egg and then parmesan cheese and fried,  yum.    I made some green tomato salsa and fermented it too, with some onion and jalapeno.  

Heather; thank you very much. These are exciting suggestions indeed. All the best, Gemma

Robert Ray wrote:green tomato chili
I'm fermenting green tomatoes in a hot sauce

This sounds terrific, Robert - thank you! I shall give it a go. All the best, Gemma

Anne Miller wrote:You can make one of my favorite relishes, it is called Chow Chow.

It contains green tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and bell pepper which make a southern variety.

Another recipe is to turn those green tomatoes into red tomatoes by putting the in a paper sack close and leaving them on your counter.  check the bag every so often until you have red tomatoes.  This only works for tomatoes that have not been refrigerated.

Thank you very much, Anne. I shall give this a try. I love the name of the relish. I also appreciate the tip about turning green tomatoes red, which I shall try next year. All the best, Gemma

Carla Burke wrote:Similar to the chow chow, a traditional pickle relish - sweet, or dill, can also be made with them. Our you can also slice them thin, lightly salt tureen, and dehydrate them into tasty, chips, that go great with drops, sandwiches, or whatever.

Many thanks for these ideas, Carla! I’m going to try some wild camping in preparation for maybe doing bootcamp one day, and so will try the dehydrated chips first. All the best, Gemma

Thank you, all, for those great suggestions, which I shall get around to trying all of. Yesterday I made this green tomato pasta sauce which I can highly recommend: End of Harvest Green Tomato Sauce

Gemma Boyd wrote:Thank you, all, for those great suggestions, which I shall get around to trying all of. Yesterday I made this green tomato pasta sauce which I can highly recommend: End of Harvest Green Tomato Sauce

Ooh, that recipe sounds fantastic!  Thanks for sharing it.

Lif Strand wrote:

Gemma Boyd wrote:Thank you, all, for those great suggestions, which I shall get around to trying all of. Yesterday I made this green tomato pasta sauce which I can highly recommend: End of Harvest Green Tomato Sauce

Ooh, that recipe sounds fantastic!  Thanks for sharing it.

You’re welcome, Lif! Enjoy!

Carla Burke wrote:Or you can also slice them thin, lightly salt, and dehydrate them into tasty, chips, that go great with dips, sandwiches, or whatever.

I was just trying to decide what to do with the green tomatoes I picked today. I'm willing to try chips on the off chance that I can get the cheep seats to at least *try* them!
What temp did you dehydrate at, and about how long?
Have you tried using a mandolin to slice them? That would get them more even than me slicing by hand - but they're small, narrow ones and I'll have to be very careful not to slice my fingers!

Pickle them in a salt water brine with jalapeños

This thread makes me wonder if the hard, pinkish tomatoes I find at the grocer at the season's end are a suitable substitute for green tomatoes.  I've never seen green tomatoes in the stores, so I must be a gardener's thing.  I started this year's garden (my first in decades) late, but I have a few tomatillos that may last through the first frost, but probably still won't be ah, ripe. I'll try using them as I would for fried green tomatoes too.  I'll let you know what happens.  Thanks.

Jay Angler wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:Or you can also slice them thin, lightly salt, and dehydrate them into tasty, chips, that go great with dips, sandwiches, or whatever.

I was just trying to decide what to do with the green tomatoes I picked today. I'm willing to try chips on the off chance that I can get the cheep seats to at least *try* them!
What temp did you dehydrate at, and about how long?
Have you tried using a mandolin to slice them? That would get them more even than me slicing by hand - but they're small, narrow ones and I'll have to be very careful not to slice my fingers!

Have fun making your chips, Jay. I thought I’d have a go at making them too today. I made chow chow the other day with chard instead of cabbage - v nice.

Barbara Manning wrote:This thread makes me wonder if the hard, pinkish tomatoes I find at the grocer at the season's end are a suitable substitute for green tomatoes.  I've never seen green tomatoes in the stores, so I must be a gardener's thing.  I started this year's garden (my first in decades) late, but I have a few tomatillos that may last through the first frost, but probably still won't be ah, ripe. I'll try using them as I would for fried green tomatoes too.  I'll let you know what happens.  Thanks.

Hi Barbara, I think the hard pinkish tomatoes should work with any of these recipes. Good luck!

Jay Angler wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:Or you can also slice them thin, lightly salt, and dehydrate them into tasty, chips, that go great with dips, sandwiches, or whatever.

I was just trying to decide what to do with the green tomatoes I picked today. I'm willing to try chips on the off chance that I can get the cheep seats to at least *try* them!
What temp did you dehydrate at, and about how long?
Have you tried using a mandolin to slice them? That would get them more even than me slicing by hand - but they're small, narrow ones and I'll have to be very careful not to slice my fingers!

Our mandoline apparently disappeared, when we moved here, and... well. They're rather dangerous, for me. I'm fair at slicing by hand, as long as my knife is very sharp - and John is pretty good about keeping them sharp, considering all the charcuterie and other cooking he still does. Retirement hasn't dampened his cheffing skills.

I do most of my dehydrating at 125°F, but the humidity varies so much that I don't bother with times - I just put it on the max time, and check it, periodically.

I’m enjoying this dish at the moment: Vegan Roasted Green Tomato Soup

Green Salsa,
I don’t have an exact recipe,but here are the ingredients:
Green Tomatoes
Green Chilies
Onions
Garlic
Vinegar
If you want it spicy add Sereno chilies
I canned about 8 quarts last year. Only have one left.
It’s very tasty 😋

Just finished making a double batch of green tomato salsa verde, froze some and canned some. Canned for gifts, froze for cooking.

I've made green tomatoes marmalade,  everyone enjoyed except for me but it tasted fine. 🤷‍♀️

My absolute favorite is green tomato mincemeat. If you like mincemeat that's meatless.

We just went through a huge batch of fried green tomatoes, sharing them with family. They're great accompanied by eggs. You can either fry the egg and eat it on the side with the fried green tomatoes, or a nice breakfast followup is to reheat the fried green tomatoes, dice them, and add to an omelet. Delicious!

I used this recipe from Southern Living:
Fried Green Tomatoes with Buttermilk

Question for the community:

Has anyone tried pickling green tomatoes, through natural fermentation?

I tried a batch alongside pickled radishes. The radishes turned out perfectly, but the tomatoes went yeasty. I even increased the salt ratio on the tomato batch, per instructions in Kate Downham's book, A Year in the Off-Grid Kitchen. Love that book, and it has rarely failed me, so I'm not sure why this didn't work.

When I'm fermenting green tomatoes, I treat them exactly like cukes and they've worked out fine.

HANG THEM!

We tried that last year and it worked amazingly well!

So, pull the whole plant, clean and trim roots and some leaves and hang them upside down in a room with room temperature. From experience I can tell you it’s even worth doing it in a tiny house! We had garden tomatoes for Christmas in Idaho!!! Works well with peppers too.

Enjoy everyone!

Here's quite a few ideas on what to do with tomatoes. Scroll down past all the how to grow stuff and there are 100 or so old time simple recipes for cooking and pickling:

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/additional-resources/carver-tomato/

Green Tomato Pie is a traditional fall dessert. Make pie of the last tomatoes that won't ripen.

My favorite recipe: [url=https://www.reneesgarden.com/blogs/gardening-resources/97089665-apple-and-green-tomato-pie?gclid=Cj0KCQjw--2aBhD5ARIsALiRlwDDvh0t4ay-F9ZDkMokPeqrjTL99LNRpwd7DkIbM69FbmTIE-oRAkYaAvQlEALw_wcB]

Renee's Garden Green Tomato and Apple Pie[/url]

I've tried storing them on the vine and it made such a mess that I'm not keen on trying that again. They didn't seem to ripen any better than the method I use now either.

What I usually do now is to put them in shallow boxes in a sunny warm place, checking them over every few days and then using them as they ripen.

I've never tried fermenting green tomatoes, I do have delicious and reliable results fermenting red ones and hope to do a lot more of that this season.

Anything you can do with tomato, you can do with green tomato - the flavor palette is just going to be more on the side of sour&acidic rather than sweet&acidic.
Adding sugar to sour green tomatoes is quite tasty imo

Thank you, Toko...That really sparked my taste buds and got my curiosity  wondering (and wandering)...I love fried green tomatoes but, have never thought about salsa...I'm gonna have to take a walk on the wild side

Gemma Boyd wrote:

James Freyr wrote:You can fry them. It's a southern thing, and they're delicious. Basically sliced a 1/4 or 1/2 inch thick, breaded and pan fried. An internet search for fried green tomatoes will yield a variety of recipes, and the 1990's movie by the same name.

James; green fried tomato sounds amazing. I shall give them a go and let you know what I think. All the best, Gemma

Gemma and James -  I make a spicy mayonnaise dip for the fried green tomatoes:  mix mayonnaise and (to taste) a little chili powder, a little garlic powder and a little cayenne pepper.  

There is also a "Green Tomato Casserole" that is a traditional deep South dish.  There are a number of recipes online.  It is a little like scalloped potatoes, but has a tangy flavor.

I bet they would be good as chutney.  As for the ripening, my experience has been that they turn red, but they don’t produce more sugars, they are similar to grocery  store tomatoes, which are also picked green… still worth having, but it’s worth mentioning.  One year I had thirty plus flat boxes of heirloom tomatoes I picked before first frost.  I had them spread around the living room and kitchen (full daylight in south facing room with lots of windows, temperature 55 F roughly), and picked the out of the boxes as they ripened.  I made and canned maybe 2 dozen quarts of juice.  They very much left something to be desired.  

Another thought:  putting an apple into an enclosed space (paper bag) will speed the ripening.  The apple gives off ethylene gas which speeds ripening.

I vote for the uses that depend on other ingredients for flavor!

Evelyn Law wrote:Green Salsa,
I don’t have an exact recipe,but here are the ingredients:
Green Tomatoes
Green Chilies
Onions
Garlic
Vinegar
If you want it spicy add Sereno chilies
I canned about 8 quarts last year. Only have one left.
It’s very tasty 😋

Ah, many thanks for this recipe, Evelyn. Looks great! I shall be sure to give it a go. Best wishes, Gemma

Bocca Yi wrote:Just finished making a double batch of green tomato salsa verde, froze some and canned some. Canned for gifts, froze for cooking.

I've made green tomatoes marmalade,  everyone enjoyed except for me but it tasted fine. 🤷‍♀️

My absolute favorite is green tomato mincemeat. If you like mincemeat that's meatless.

Some fab ideas here for me to try - thank you, Bocca! Best wishes, Gemma