It’s time to face the cold hard truth: tomato season won’t be here for much longer. That is, unless my freezer has anything to say about it! Out of all the summer vegetables (or is it fruit?), I think tomatoes are the ones I mourn the most when the season is over. There’s nothing worse than a flavourless winter tomato with it’s pale flesh and icy, dry appearance.
In the meantime, I’m trying to convince Eric it’s a good idea to buy the fifty-some-odd-pound bushel of tomatoes I saw at the market last week. He just can’t see the vision yet. I have visions of pasta sauces, pesto, salsa, and tomato jam dancing in my head…
To celebrate the tomato, I’ve compiled a list of my 10 favourite recipes to date.
Get ‘em while you can!
1. Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto
This pesto is bursting with seasonal flavours and nutrients. It’s also quite low in oil thanks to the roasted tomatoes adding body and flavour. I left the almonds chopped and it adds a nice texture that is great mixed into pasta or spread on a toasted sandwich.
2. Easy Tomato Basil Cream Pasta
Creamy, flavourful, and downright irresistible…no one will be able to tell there isn’t any cream in this pasta!
3. Vegan Tortilla Soup
A wonderful soup to transition from end of summer into Fall. It packs a bounty of summer flavours, with a warming comfort for those cooler summer evenings. We added a handful of vegan cheese, chopped avocado, tortilla strips, and green onion on top to really round out this hearty and filling dish.
4. Gazpacho
Still too hot for soup? Try my favourite Gazpacho. After testing a few versions, this one is hands down my favourite.
5. Basil Scalloped Tomatoes and Croutons
One of my favourite casseroles. Fresh basil and in season tomatoes are key here. One thing I love about this recipe is the short ingredient list…it was so easy!
6. Tomato Walnut Basil Pasta
This hearty pasta sauce is so healthy it hurts. Walnuts, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, basil, oh my!
7. Sundried Tomato Cheezy Kale Chips
Like nachos, only better. Satisfy your every chip craving with these cheezy and crispy kale chips!
8. Creamy Roasted Tomato Garlic Coconut Soup
This tomato soup is anything but traditional, boring, or bland and it’s definitely one of the best homemade soups I’ve made to date. The light coconut milk is a great way to add a luxurious creaminess, pairing well with the heat from the garam masala and adding a nice contrast to the rustic quality of the roasted vegetables. See why it’s received so many rave reviews.
9. Easy Roasted Tomato Pizza with Cashew Cheeze
Easy as tortilla pie! This pizza features irresistible roasted tomatoes and a creamy basil cashew cheeze sauce.
10. Lightened Up Sundried Tomato Basil Pasta
This lightened up pesto has just a few tablespoons of olive oil, but I promise you won’t know the difference . The sundried tomatoes, walnuts, and basil create an extremely flavourful pesto that goes wonderfully with pasta, sandwiches or wraps, or mixed into some grilled vegetables. Can’t have nuts? Just leave them out. The addition was more of an afterthought than a main ingredient.
September Challenge
I’m doing another challenge for the month of September – Operation Hydrate! I’m not always mindful of drinking enough water and so far this challenge is keeping me on track.
– Drink 2 glasses of water upon rising before any other fluids or food.
– Drink 6 glasses of water throughout the rest of the day.
These amounts are not set in stone – it really depends on how much exercise I do and what my needs are on that day. Really, I’m just being mindful of my water intake and making sure I start the day off with lots of water. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s actually energizing! Feel free to join me in this challenge, keeping in mind your water needs will vary. You can also do the lemon with warm water thing if you like too, but I’ve just been drinking filtered H2o.
And if you’d like to read about my August challenge results – see my page for the recap. It looks like September is also going to be a fear-conquering month with the promise of zip lining, suspension bridge dangling, and cliff walking.
I love the fall but am sad to see the end of summer’s best fruits and veggies. I have been doing challenges similar to yours as part of my New Year’s Resolution. I call it the 12 Challenges of 2012! My September challenge is to complete my first bike tour.
Buy the bushel of tomatoes! I got one a couple weeks ago for $15, was regretting it slightly as I hauled 50 something pounds of tomatoes up the stairs, but I committed to processing them that evening, and spent about 4 hours or so charring them on the BBQ (instead of blanching), cooling, peeling, seeding, ziplocked about 2/3 of them and put it in the freezer, the other 1/3 made a full stock pot of delicious tomato sauce. It was a few hours work but now I have a whole lot of whole peeled tomatoes ready to go! I also roasted and ziplocked 10 lbs of red peppers at $.69/lb, and 2 huge butternut squash that were $2 each. I don’t think I will regret it!
Thanks for the tips! It sounds like you made great use of them. They are so cheap when you buy by the bushel!
These all look great, I’m especially eyeing that Tomato Basil Cream Pasta. Yum! I know its sad to see to tomato season go but I know you’ll be whippin’ up some goodness with the upcoming harvest!
I love the tomato basil cream pasta! I just made it last night with some beautiful heirloom tomatoes. It is my family’s favorite meal!
My mouth is watering!! All of these sound amazing Ange! I was away for the weekend and sadly forgot that I had 4 tomatoes that were VERY ripe sitting in a bowl on the counter. When I came home, I had some very fuzzy tomatoes to dispose of… yuck! Can’t wait to get some more so I can try your recipes. One of my favourite things to do is a big batch of chilli in the fall, that sits in the freezer and makes for some very quick dinners on week nights. At the same time though, I don’t want summer to end!
ah, chili is a good one! I forgot to link to that. It freezes so well!
In the past year I have developed a very deep, very real love for tomatos. They are like this magical little food item with virtually no calories and extreme ranges in flavor. I can’t wait to try some of these!
Hmmm, for the next 3 nights I would like #1, #9, then #10. I’m loving tomatoes right now!
All I can say is Yum. I am craving #2 and #3 now
Socks officially knocked! Such a delicious-looking array of creative recipes. I’m loving the idea of coconut milk in a tomato soup, and those pasta dishes look divine. I just slow-roasted and froze two big trays of heirloom cherry tomatoes this past weekend, and now I’m dreaming of a massive tomato-canning operation. Maybe if I can get someone to come up and take care of the baby for a few hours … babies are not conducive to getting much canning (or much of anything else) done. Who knew?! ;)
Woah! Ziplining, cliff walking? You’re literally, living on the edge Angela!
We’re winding down on our tomato harvest, but getting into peaches. A little sad, but that means, time for peach salsa, peach crisp. So many great peach things.
I’m up for the September challenge. Water it is! I don’t always drink as much as I should, but I found it’s helpful to drink in my insulated tumbler w/ straw. Somehow drinking out of a straw makes it easier.
I have to agree with your feeling about summer tomatoes. I just love the sweet flavourful tomatoes picked fresh off the vine this time of year! Your scalloped tomatoes with croutons is one of my FAVOURITE fall dishes! It’s actually been on my mind lately ;-) and will be in my belly in the very near future!!
This is a fantastic post!! I marked 4 of them to try in the next week or 2. Would you say they all freeze well? I cook for 1 so it takes me some time, even if I halve the recipe.
P.S. I used the julienne peeler on a zucchini last night – genius!!! Thanks for that tip. I am now officially obsessed with it. :)
The Creamy Roasted Tomato Garlic Coconut Soup was a big winner in my house last winter… so warm and delicious! Can’t wait for cold weather and soup season :)
I love the roasted tomato soup with coconut milk! I haven’t eaten any yet this year but I have four batches in the freezer.
I’ve been roasting the tomatoes, onion and garlic and placing them in a freezer bag. Then I just need to thaw out a bag, empty it in a pot before adding the other ingredients. Soup is ready in no time at all, with very little work.
what delicious recipes! i don’t know which to try first! yum!
These recipes look awesome! I have been in a major cooking rut and these look like just the recipes to bust me out! Thanks so much!
Well seeing as summer technically finishes end of September, I must make all of these recipes asap! :) They all look sooo good! Also, i’m going to join in operation hydration – I need to be more mindful when it comes to water
I made your Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto last summer right around this time of year! It knocked the sock off my family :) I think this post serves as a reminder for me to make it again!
Glad to hear that Theresa!
Yummm! I REALLY like tomatoes but only if they are puréed! How weird is that? I even have to blend up store bought salsas and pasta sauces to make sure there are no tomatoe chunks!
Every summer my parents buy about 100kg organic tomatoes and for a few days they make tomato sauce for the rest of the year. They wash the jars, cut and cook the tomatoes, close the jars and sterilise them au bain marie. Then the filled jars have a rest for a few days wrapped in some old blankets and then they go to the cellar. A lot of work. This year only 50kg, since they plan to eat less pasta.
So your 50 pounds do not look at all strange to me, even if I would never make so much sauce in one go.
It all looks SO GOOD! I love tomatoes but the Sundried Tomato Cheezy Kale Chips (love cheezy kale chips!) and that Pizza are calling out to me, loudly!
You will not regret making the kale chips…can’t seem to make enough around here. So healthy too!