We pulled our tomato plants out this past week. Both age and a small bit of blight were effecting them and they needed to go before the blight could spread. We got a great harvest from our tomatoes this year and other than a few disappointing varieties (one variety split open 9 out of 10 tomatoes) we are very pleased. I know that many people did not get such a harvest because of late blight this year so we were definitely one of the lucky ones.
As we pulled those plants out though they still had a number of green tomatoes. Some had quite large green tomatoes still but blight was slowly decaying their stems so they could not wait on the vine any longer.
What to do with all those green maters is a question each year. My husband and neighbors like them fried. I saw a good recipe earlier this year some where with fried green tomatoes with a cherry tomato salsa on top and an added basil “paste” on the side (not pesto exactly but a paste of some sort that most of us can surely figure out in our minds eye).
Beyond fried my preference is for green tomato bread and butter pickles …with onions in there. They are actually my favorite way and so I no longer grow cucumbers since I think the tomatoes make, what I consider to be, a better pickle. However…I still have enough jars left over from last year so I had to find some new ways to use the greens. I came up with the following recipes. There are a number of versions on line and these are fairly common if you know about them. These are as I made them.
Try some of them out…I have on our family and friends and everyone liked all of them.
Hopefully no matter the weather most of you will get at least a few green tomatoes to try out one or two of these recipes.
*As always with canning recipes please read and understand how to can and know your altitude for appropriate time changes to these sea level canning directions.
GREEN TOMATO JAM
(excellent on chicken sandwiches or as a side to meat. Also good with bread)
1 1/2 pounds of green tomatoes with core, stem end and seeds cut or dug out then diced –don’t worry about skins as they will blend right in and not be noticed.
2 3/4 cup granulated sugar
juice of one lemon
2 inch piece of ginger, minced
*other options are cinnamon, allspice, vanilla….play with a few batches and find the one(s) you prefer.
Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan, Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, at least 1 hour . Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes or store in refrigerator.
Green Tomato Marmalade
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded
2 1/4 pounds green tomatoes
3 1/4cups sugar
Bring lemon slices to a boil in a pot of water. Drain. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan along with 1/4 cup water, and bring to a simmer, stirring, to dissolve sugar. Cook at a bare simmer until tomatoes and lemon slices are translucent and syrup thickens. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes or store in refrigerator.
Green Tomato and Jalapeño Jam
4 jalapeños, stems & seeds removed, sliced
1 to 2” section of ginger, chopped (based on your liking for ginger)
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
½ cup cider vinegar
2 tbl soy sauce
1and 1/2 lb green tomatoes (cored,seeded and chopped)
3 cups sugar
In a blender or food processor, blend the jalapenos, herbs, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and cider vinegar till smooth. Add the mixture to a heavy bottom pot with the sugar and tomatoes. Place on the heat, bring to a simmer and cook on low till glossy and thick. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes or store in refrigerator.
Green Tomato Chutney
(excellent as a side to grilled pork this is one of my new favorite recipes)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds firm green tomatoes, about 6 cups diced
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups cider vinegar (authentic recipes use malt vinegar also)
1 to 2 inch piece of chopped ginger
Hot pepper to taste. Use either dried or fresh. Take a sample..let it cool…then taste and adjust during cooking.
*this recipe doubles or triples easily.
Trim the stem and blossom ends from tomatoes and cut into 3/4-inch dice
Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook until thickened. This can take from 30 minutes to an 1 and ½ depending on how thick you want it.
Spoon chutney into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space; wipe jar rims. Process for 15 minutes in boiling water bath.
Good Luck all and happy canning 
A timely post – now I can do something with these green tomatoes!
What do you serve the chutney and Jalapeno Jam with?
I hav just made up those recipes today and they taste great.
Thank you
Geraldine
Oh, thank you so much for sharing these recipes! Tomatoes are the one thing that has done well for me this year.
Annette…thanks and good luck
Maeve….lucky you for the tomatoes. So many lost theirs. We had pretty good luck though not as good as usual. Crossing my fingers for next year.
Thanks for all the recipes. Because of the blight, all summer there have been many unripe tomatoes pulled before their time, and the need for lots of creative ways to use them. I’ve done salsa, chutney…. and used them grilled, breaded/roasted, and cooked with new potatoes. The potato and tomato combo worked particularly well I think… I will surely try the jam this weekend.
Mangochild…
Hopefully you got to try that jam. We are almost finished with ours and I wish I had done more. Next year…definitely twice as much at least.
Great ideas!
We like to slice them, drizzle olive oil over them, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake until the cheese melts and the tomatoes are tender, about 10 minutes or so.
Paulette:
Sounds like Italian version of “fried green tomatoes” from the south
Has anyone seen a recipe using green tomatoes and raspberry jello. My grandmother used to make “mock raspberry jam”. The seeds in the tomatoes were the same as raspberry seeds, so you couldn’t tell the difference!
YrHelper Infonut:
Here’s one recipe:
Chop about 5 cups of tomatoes, put into blender to get 4 1/2 cups liquid. Put 5 cups of sugar into a pan and mix well with the 4 1/2 cups liquid. Boil this for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove, add 2 (3 oz.) packages raspberry or strawberry Jello and mix very well. Fill jars and top with 1/2″ paraffin. Put into refrigerator to thicken. This is an excellent way to use up all the extra tomatoes from the garden. It tastes just like fruit jam.
Do you think I could freeze the chutney after cooking and cooling? I don’t have a the equipment for canning but have ample freezer space? say yes say yes say yes say yes…. it sounds WONDERFUL!
Rose …you can freeze the chutney though the texture will be a tad different since the freezing will finish “smoothing out” the tomatoes. Just like freezing any tomato product. The taste should be fine.
As to canning you need a few jars, with fresh lids, and a pot large enough to put the jars in with 1″ of water over them. If you do it in half pints or pints the new jars (with lids and rings included) will cost you maybe ….8 dollars, maybe less, for 12 and they should fit in the “average” spaghetti pot for boiling for the requisite 10 minutes to seal.
However…if the canning still won’t work for you: Yes, yes, yes, freeze it ;-D
What do you serve the chutney and Jalapeno Jam with?
I just made some up today and they both taste so good.
Thank you, Geraldine
Hi Geraldine…
Sandwiches….and as sides. We play around with all of these things as sandwich additions since mayo only can be very BORING after a while and sandwiches are really quick meals. I roast larger birds specifically to have days worth of sandwich meat. It’s kind of like a chicken, mayo and jam sandwich
My favorite is any of the tomato jams on chicken—yum!. I haven’t tried it on beef yet…we just haven’t had much beef this year but the jalepeno one (I think) would also be good with beef.
I find chicken is always a good place to start for sampling new things like these (as a side or an addition to it) since chicken is so mild, especially if you don’t eat a lot of rice and grains which the chutneys will also work with. Maybe beans too…but we don’t usually do chutneys with beans favoring salsa style things with them instead.
Everyone in my family has a different way of eating all of them of course. My husbands favors the chutney as a side with a number of things including just plain steamed rice. He’s a huge vinegar fan though. The jalepeno jam is more my sons style since it has the soy in it. He’s big into Asian cooking and anything with soy and peppers appeals to him. He just doesn’t add the sugar to the recipes when he adds the spicy jam…using the jam instead for the sweet part of the asian saute type dishes. He probably throws in some additions..but basically that is how he uses it. I believe he likes it on sandwiches too but I can’t remember for sure.
I have another chutney that I made (not posted here) that I haven’t quite found the right match too. It has corn and some other veggies in it. It’s not bad…but I just haven’t found the right “thing” for it yet. I may never make it again but I do try and remember to pull out the jar often and sample it with various meals. That way I can hopefully find a match for it. I guess that’s really my best piece of advice since so many of us like different food items. Sample, sample and sample some more. Eventually we add more ways to eat our produce than just as fresh tomatoes and as an addition to spaghetti sauce but when we’re so used to eating so few items (compared to our grandparents or even great grandparents) then it takes time to re introduce all these things back into our repertoire of meals.
Good luck…sorry I couldn’t be more help.