How to ripen tomatoes, and some recipes

Ripe, juicy tomatoes filled with flavour are a backbone of thousands of recipes from all over the world. The quality and ripeness of the tomatoes you use always matters, as the flavour won’t be right otherwise. That’s especially true when you are making a salad. If you grow your own tomatoes or find that the ones you’ve bought are unripe, here are a few tips for helping them develop more flavour.

How tomatoes ripen
The first thing you need to know is that sunlight isn’t always helpful; in fact, too much light can toughen skins, so don’t put your tomatoes on the windowsill. If you grow tomatoes, don’t be tempted to pull the leaves off the plants to help them get more sunshine.

Tomatoes need warmth to ripen. The warmer a tomato is, the quicker it will ripen – putting your tomatoes in the fridge is therefore no help to them at all, and can even degrade their texture to ‘mealy’. However, if tomatoes get too hot, the ripening will stop – another reason to keep them off the windowsill.

Tomatoes, like bananas and avocados, give off ethene (or ethylene) gas, a natural plant hormone that regulates a plant’s growth and makes it ripen by converting the starch it stores into sugar. All fruits do this, and tomatoes are technically a fruit, which is why they will ripen other climacteric fruits (fruit that will ripen off the plant that it grows on).

As long as you are start the process with tomatoes that have naturally started to ripen (even if they have only just started to tinge yellow or orange in patches) these will be ready to ripen, and will have a better flavour when they turn red. Tomatoes that are completely green may not develop as good a flavour or ripen as well, so perhaps think about using them in a recipe such as green tomato chutney.

How to ripen tomatoes
In a breathable bag or box

1) In order to speed up the ripening process, all you need to do is trap the ethene gas in with the tomatoes by putting them in a paper bag, cardboard box or empty kitchen drawer.

2) Add a ripening banana or apple, which will also give off ethene to help things along.
3) Fruit gives off moisture, so use a bag or box that won’t trap it and keep the tomatoes spaced apart so they don’t go mouldy.
4) Ripening from very unripe usually takes a week or two at higher temperatures (18C-25C is optimum) – just keep checking as the tomatoes will ripen at different speeds.
5) If it’s cold in your kitchen, ripening will take much longer. Also, check for tomatoes that start to rot, as these will affect all the others.

There is some advice available that tell you to put tomatoes in a jar, but this is more likely to trap moisture and hasten spoiling.

In the fruit bowl
If your tomatoes are almost ripe but just need a little more time, keep them in your fruit bowl. The fruit around them will give off ethene and help them to ripen, and you will be able to keep an eye on them.
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Some tomato recipes you may like to try

lovely roast tomatoes

see more details here

summer tomato pie

see more details here

Tomato Soup with onions, carrot and celery

see more details here

Dear reader you will find a variety of articles and recipe ideas within 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