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 this one stop shop for all things tomato…. they’re one of my favs too! You will love ziplining. It’s super fun!!
Mmmm. I love tomatoes. I love everything tomato-related. My MIL is coming to visit and – while that can be stressful – she is bringing me tomatoes from her garden, so I’m excited. When my MIL brings produce, she brings like 30 pounds of produce. It’s kind of awesome.
So thankful for this post. I have 32 tomatoes from the last “unlimited tomato picking” at our CSA last week sitting on my counter and was starting to run out of ideas. Perfect timing!
I’ll definitely be joining you for operation hydrate! I just moved back to Colorado and the altitude necessitates much more hydration than being back on the East Coast. A quick tip I learned when I worked at a spa here: you can use cucumber slices in water to help with digestion (go light on the cucumber though because a little goes a long way!). Lemon will help with detoxifying and I like water with frozen raspberries for a little sweetness when I have them :) Oh and organic peppermint oil mixed with some cold water is very refreshing after being outside or exercising! That’s all the “water tricks” I know!
Love the challenge! I always start my day off well by drinking hot lemon and cayenne water when I wake up, and then a huge glass of water immediately after. Some days it goes downhill after that though. We have a ton of watermelon in our fridge, I need to add that to my water to mix it up a little!
Every single dish looks delicious! But that pesto… my goodness, I must make that very soon!
Mmmm, I’ll take one of each!
Thanks for all the great food porn. And in one post!
I too will need to increase my water intake, as it has just become spring :)
Our supermarket stocks tomato’s all year round so I tend to forget when they are ment to go out of season!
I am going to make the Creamy Roasted Tomato, Garlic, & Onion Coconut Soup tomorrow :) It looks so delicious, can’t wait to taste it! :-)
I HAVE to bookmark this post. Tomatoes are my #1 favorite thing to eat and I’m always looking for new ways to fill the tomato craving. It makes me sad to think that tomato season is just about over and I’ll have to go back to buying sub-par imported tomatoes from the grocery store. I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts!
That’s so funny – I just wrote a draft for a post with a tomato recipe, and I said exactly what you said about the flavourless tomatoes in stores in the winter! I’m going to be so sad when tomato season is over.
Help! I have about 30 tomatoes staring me in the face on my kitchen windowsill and probably 20-30 more on the vine in the garden! I need help! I’ve read through your recipes and I’m going to make the majority of them. I have some questions…your walnut pasta sauce calls for a can of crushed tomatoes how do I use this recipe with ripe tomatoes. Also, someone commented earlier about using the bbq rather than blanching them in boiling water. I blanced some last week in order to peel and seed them and I ended up with a very small amount of “tomato meat” for a sauce I made….am I missing something? Is there an easier way to peel and seed them? It seemed like a lot of waste.
Yum, I love tomatoes and want to try your Roasted Tomato Garlic Coconut Soup! The water challenge is awesome. I drink a lot of water but I’ve been trying to drink water every morning before anything else but now having a challenge will push me to do it :) Thanks Angela!
The roasted tomato basil pesto is my absolute fav!!! i plant lots of tomatoes just to make enough to freeze it. It freezes wonderfully…great for that fresh burst of tomato in the dead of winter!!!
Oh thank goodness for this post. I have too many tomatoes in my garden and I’m (sadly) getting tired of making just marinara sauce!
I love tomatoes- I planted a few plants and I have a bunch of green ones. I can’t wait for them to ripen up so I can make (and in a lot of cases re-make) all of the above recipes!
The ONLY thing my garden produced this year was hundreds (well maybe, like 50) tomatoes! I just started my food blog and I feel for the (few) readers I have, because literally all my recipes are tomato-based. Ha! I am getting down to my final few batches, so I am definitely going to take advantage of your freezing techniques!
Thanks for sharing – wonderful – and timely! – post :)
hah well there is nothing wrong with a few tomato recipes up your sleeve right? ;) I will check it out!
Part of my freezer is already filled with homemade tomato pasta sauce (the other half of my freezer contains otameals squares haha), but I really want to try the pesto!! Looks like I will be spending another weekend trying new recipes from your blog!
All of these recipes look fantastic! Can’t wait to try.
As for the September goal, whenever I drink a glass of warm water with lemon first thing in the a.m., I feel great. But I usually forget. I think I’ll make that my goal this month too. Thanks for the reminder!
Hi Angela,
I stumbled upon your website after recently being diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis, and a possible celiacs (gluten intollerance)… I have been already diagnosed with a autoimmune disorder (thyroid hashimotos) from years past. I have been an extremely healthy eater and active at the gym. But now, I now must embrace a totally Vegan/gluten free diet, and look to you for help- This is a tough combination, but am “on board”.. your website as my inspiration! I have gotten down at the thoughts of what “could” happen, as I am young, and active. You inspire me, please keep the joyous recipes coming- I need help with new vegan/gluten free options-
I will pass your website along to all my natropath / chiropratic/ nursing friends that I know!
thanks,
Julie Farr, BSN, RN
Phoenix Arizona
Hey Julie,
Thank you so much for your kind words & for sharing the site with others. I appreciate it so much! Goodluck with everything, it sounds like you are doing all the right things and I hope you see some relief soon!
This is perfect! I have s many tomatoes, I just don’t know what to do with them!! Thanks for sharing!!