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Sunday 6 May 2018

Summer Tomato Pie : Low Carb


Tomato in a pie? Yes please! This savoury low-carb pie is best with fresh summer tomatoes from a Southern garden. If you can’t get Southern tomatoes, just get tomatoes! Enjoy by itself, with salad, but also delicious served with grilled meats.

Ingredients
Six servings
5g carb per serving
Crust
175 ml / ¾ cup almond flour 

75 ml / 1⁄3 cup oat fibre*
225 ml 1 cup shredded (grated) parmesan cheese
1 egg
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
Filling
5 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced
75 ml f/ 1⁄3 cup finely slivered white onions
125 ml / ½ cup mayonnaise
225 ml / 1 cup shredded (grated) cheese

Tip
For more flavour, feel free to sprinkle chopped, cooked bacon over the tomatoes before baking the pie.
* The oat fibre can be replaced with 2 tbls. of coconut flour (1 pie).
Find recipe instructions here


Tomato:
Pronounce it: toe-mart-oh

A member of the nightshade family (along with aubergines, peppers and chillies), tomatoes are in fact a fruit, but their affinity for other savoury ingredients means that they are usually classed as a vegetable.

Tomatoes originated in western South America, crossed the Atlantic to Spain with the conquistadors in the 16th century, but only finally caught on in northern Europe in the 19th century. Today they're one of the most important ingredients available, and are especially indispensable in Mediterranean cookery. The skin, flesh and seeds can all be eaten, but the green leaves are toxic, so should always be discarded.

The number of varieties run into the thousands, and they vary in size from the huge beefsteak to tiny cherry tomatoes, but most have a sweet, gently tangy flavour and are good both raw and cooked.

Availability:
All year round, with a constantly changing line-up of varieties from season to season. The British tomato season runs from June to October. In winter, you could use more canned tomatoes to save on food miles (the environmental cost of food transportation).

Tomatoes are easy to grow at home, especially the smaller tumbling varieties.

Choose the best:
Go for firm tomatoes with wrinkle-free skins and a noticeable tomato smell. Tomatoes have the best, sweetest flavour if they've been allowed to ripen on the vine before they've been picked but, if you buy under-ripe tomatoes, you can redden them by keeping them in a brown paper bag at room temperature, or on a windowsill.

The sooner you eat a ripe tomato after it's been picked, the better it will taste, so try to seek out locally grown tomatoes if possible. The leafy tops are a good sign of freshness; they should be perky, rather than wilted. Avoid any tomatoes that show signs of mould.

The type of tomato you buy depends on what you intend to do with it. Here's a run-down of some of the most common types.

Beefsteak: these are the biggest tomatoes, and have a meaty texture with a sweet, mellow flavour. They are good for salads, grilling or stuffing.

Salad (or round): this is the traditional British tomato - it's a good all rounder, but really needs to be ripe to get the best flavour.

Cherry: small and very sweet, cherry tomatoes are pricier than salad tomatoes but their intense flavour is worth the extra cash. They are good in salads, pasta sauces or roasted.

Plum: Available as a baby or full-grown tomato, plum tomatoes have an oval shape, with a rich flavour and comparatively few seeds. Good for making sauces and stews.

Green: there are two types of green tomato. One is unripe, and is quite tart but good for chutneys, or fried. The other is a variety that stays green when ripe, has a tangy flavour and is good in salads or, again, fried.

Yellow: these ripen to a golden yellow colour, and are good in salads, salsas and chutneys.

Prepare it:
Wash, and then leave whole or halve, quarter, slice, chop or dice, as required. If you want to remove the skins before making them into a sauce, cut out the green stalk and core at the top of the tomato, cut a small, shallow cross at its base, then put them in bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to stand for 30 seconds, then drain. When they are cool enough to handle, pull away the loosened skin. Tomatoes are also available tinned, pulped, purr'eed and juiced.

Store it:
Chilling tomatoes mutes their flavour so, unless they are very ripe, they should be stored at room temperature. If you won't be eating ripe tomatoes for a couple of days, put them in the fridge in a perforated bag, but take them out of the fridge for about 30 minutes before eating, so that they can warm up. If you don't use a tin of tomatoes all in one go, transfer the remainder to a non-metal, airtight container and store in the fridge - it will last for around two days.

Cook it:
Roast whole (15-20 minutes). Halve and grill (3-4 minutes). Slice and fry (2-3 minutes on each side). Use in sauces, soups, stews, salads.

Above details taken from here

We bring a variety of articles and recipe ideas to this blog, and not all may be suitable for you. If you may have any food allergies, or underlying health issues these must always be taken into account. If you are a diabetic and not sure how certain foods may affect your blood sugars, test is best, i.e. use your meter.

All the best Jan

28 comments:

Christine said...

This must be delicious!

Sandra Cox said...

Oh yum!
Enjoy your three day holiday.

Pam said...

Low carb is so what I need. I am a BREAD Alcoholic.....any type of bread, bread on a pizza, a sandwich, rolls....you name it. Having Gastric By Pass may have helped to drop weight but it sure did nothing for cravings. I just have to not buy that stuff then I look in the shopping basket and there are taters, rice and noodles.....always a battle. Thanks for sharing.

Martha said...

I can only imagine how delicious this must be!

Jo said...

I've never heard of a tomato pie before.

Mary Kirkland said...

This sounds really good to me.

Chris Lally said...

A good incentive for home grown tomatoes.
Thanks for the recipes - looks delicious!

Lorrie said...

This looks delicious. Bring on tomato season!

Debbie said...

this looks and sounds so good. i copied it for this summer when i am overcome with tomatoes!!!

i think you could add almost anything to it and it would be extra delicious!!!

The Joy of Home with Martha Ellen said...

We love tomato pie! This looks wonderfully delicious and low carb makes it even better! Have a wonderful week ahead. ♥

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious.

Tina

Tom said...

...toe-mart-oh, not where I come from!

William Kendall said...

That sounds delicious.

Elephant's Child said...

A fresh tomato is a thing of joy and beauty. And I have never thought about a pie. Thanks for the nudge.

happyone said...

Sure looks and sounds good. I've never had a tomato pie.

Catarina said...

I have never had a tomato pie.
There is always a first time...

Kezzie said...

Ooh, I really enjoyed reading that information about tomatoes!!!! I love them and pity my poor colleague who isn't allowed to eat them as they really inflame her Eczema!

Margaret D said...

To-mart-toe - that's how we say it here in Australia :)
Nice post..

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

This looks really good. I enjoyed learning about how to keep and store tomatoes, too. Great information, Jan.

Valerie-Jael said...

Yummy! Hugs, Valerie

Iris Flavia said...

Wow, they really came late over here!
Funny enough the best tomatoes here you get from ALDI from April - September.

Snowbird said...

Interesting facts about the tomato, an interesting dish too.xxx

Crafty Green Poet said...

That looks delicious and thanks for the info about tomatoes

Bob Bushell said...

Nice Jan.

Magic Love Crow said...

This sounds so good! Thank you!

carol l mckenna said...

Oh delish!

Happy Day to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Sara - Villa Emilia said...

Hello Jan, there are so many new recipe posts here... and again all so tasty-looking and beautiful.
Thank you for the inspiration! Happy May wishes to you! xx

Lisa said...

Looks like an ideal partner to have with a summery salad on these warmer days.
Lisa x