What to do with canned tomatoes?

We're not going to lie to you, nothing beats the flavor of a fresh, sun-drenched tomato except that… It's not available all year round! And let's be honest, even in peak season, many of us struggle to find a quality/tasty product. No matter how much we say, nothing beats tomatoes from the neighbor's/grandparents'/friends' vegetable garden, pampered for a long time by loving hands. But if we are not all lucky enough to have a vegetable garden at hand or to have stocked up on tomato coulis in August, canned tomatoes are a smart and inexpensive solution to integrate a little summer on its menus. And it's better to have a tomato canned on the production site in the middle of the season than a dull product that has traveled the world to arrive on our plate, causing a much-awaited disappointment upon arrival.

The benefits of canned tomatoes

Let it be said, even if canned goods are often accompanied by many preconceptions, they nevertheless have many advantages. So, yes, we all prefer fresh products, but out of season, these little boxes far supplant the tasteless products that have grown in greenhouses!

The price

First significant advantage: the price. A can is inexpensive and lasts a long time.

Fast and efficient packaging

As the tomatoes are packaged just a few hours after harvest, the micronutrients are better preserved than a tomato left in the fridge for a few days, with lasting organoleptic qualities over time. In addition, know that it is in the cooking juice present in the box that 50% of the vitamins and minerals are found.

Benefits superior to fresh produce

We didn't see this one coming, yet canned tomatoes contain more lycopene than fresh products because this natural antioxidant is released during cooking. Likewise, following the high temperature treatment (canning) undergone by foods, carotenoids become more digestible for the body, even if this treatment necessarily leads to a loss of nutrients. We have nothing without nothing.

We also make sure to choose products without added salt.

The basics of canning

No dents, holes, swelling, or leaking, the can is safe to eat. Otherwise, it is good to throw away.

Which canned tomato to choose?

On the purchasing side, the choice depends above all on the recipe chosen. If you want to keep pieces, it is better to choose whole peeled or crushed tomatoes, but if you want to prepare a homemade sauce or pizza, in this case, coulis is the perfect solution. In all cases, using canned tomatoes is more important in making a “cooked” recipe. We therefore forget them in a fresh salad, otherwise the result will be too watery and without texture.

All that remains is to find inspiration among the following 20 proposals.