Quick Tip: How to Keep Clean When Working With Tomatoes

Now is the time of year when everyone and their neighbor have ripe tomatoes. Some people plant 1 or 2 plants, some plant 16, some plant 100. Either way, chances are you are drowning in tomatoes. There are SO many uses for fresh tomatoes. Our favorites are usually fresh salsa and spaghetti sauce. Whatever you decide to do with your tomatoes, it tends to be a mess.  This past weekend I made 3 gallons of salsa, and helped process about that much in tomatoes that will soon become sauce. I'm going to share with you the way I kept the kitchen clean and had an easy work station and clean up for my messy tomatoes. 

Some of the salsa I made in our giant soup pot!

Tomatoes cleaned up with skin and seeds removed for sauce.

It's really simple and most everyone has the tools for it in their kitchen. I will never cut tomatoes any other way again. 

So here it is. I took a cutting board and placed it into a baking pan with sides, about 1 inch or so deep, that was just a tiny bit larger than my cutting board. It's sides aren't high enough to get in the way and you can push your seeds and excess tomato liquid right off the side of the cutting board and into the tray. When it gets full I dumped my scraps into the garbage disposal and kept on chopping! 

So there you have it, a simple and easy work station for processing tomatoes for any recipe! Clean up took seconds and there was no tomato juice running across the counter and onto the floor. I hope you enjoyed this tip and as always, thanks for reading! 

I want to hear from you! What are some of your favorite tomato recipes? 

Until next time, 

Rachael