20 Reliable Ways to Preserve Tomatoes for the Winter

Fresh tomatoes are one of the tastiest and most versatile veggies there are, and whether you are bringing in a big bumper crop from your own garden or hauling home a huge load from the local farmer’s market, if you don’t act fast to preserve them, they will start to wrinkle, discolor, and go bad.

That’s a shame, especially if you were looking forward to enjoying your tomatoes all winter long at the end of the season!

But the good news is that with just a little bit of time, effort, and elbow grease, you can reliably preserve tomatoes in a host of ways, keeping them fresh and safe so you can eat them later.

In this article, I’ll be telling you about 20 proven ways to preserve your tomatoes, and no matter how you like to enjoy them, there are bound to be at least a few methods here that will be perfect for you. Let’s get right into it.

Canned with Juice	1 year
Canned with Water	1 year
Raw Pack Canned	1 year
Crushed and Canned	1 year
Frozen Whole	9 months
Juiced	6 – 12 months
Paste	1 year
Sauce	1 year
Ketchup	6 months
Chutney	1 year
Canned Tomato Soup	1 – 2 years
Stewed	6 months
Pickled	6 months
Fermented	9 months
Jam	1 year
Sun-Dried	6 months
Dehydrated	6 months
Freeze-Dried	20 years
Powdered	6 months
Salsa	1 year

Canned with Juice

One of the best and most versatile ways to preserve your tomatoes for the winter also ensures they’ll be extremely flavorful.

Tomatoes can be canned in their own juice using a water bath or pressure canner, but whichever route you go, you’ll have to add acid to them for safety. Yes, tomatoes are quite acidic, but not quite acidic enough according to the NCHFP.

In any case, canning tomatoes in their own juice will help them keep a vivid color and a delicious flavor, and they’ll keep for at least a year if done properly and stored in a cool, dark pantry.

Canned with Water

An alternative method for canning fresh tomatoes, be they whole or halved, is to pressure or water bath can them after filling the jars with water instead of juice.

Sometimes this is a good approach if you want a milder tomato or if you’re canning a variety that simply isn’t very juicy. It’s also a little less work.

Even when canning the tomatoes with water, you’ll still have to add lemon juice, citric acid, or another kind of acid for safety as with the previous method, but done right, you’ll get about a year of shelf life out of them.

Raw Pack Canned

A more interesting method for canning fresh tomatoes also helps to save that vine-ripe flavor. It’s possible to raw pack the tomatoes, adding neither water nor juice, if you can cram enough of them into a jar that their own juices fill in the spaces between.

It’s going to be a little more work than you might think, and the variety chosen makes a big difference, but I’ve always enjoyed the flavor and texture when prepared this way.

Once more, shelf life is about a year if kept in proper conditions, and they will easily stay fresh all winter long and well into the following spring.

Crushed and Canned

Crushed tomatoes are a versatile kitchen staple and can quickly and easily be made into a variety of other tomato-based condiments, soups, and other recipes.

Crushing tomatoes is ultimately canning them more or less the same as detailed above, but the only difference is preparation and the processing time depending on your chosen method.

Once again, don’t forget to acidify them for safety and good results! Your crushed and canned tomatoes will again keep for about a year.

Frozen Whole

This is bound to be a shocker for some folks, but it is entirely possible to freeze tomatoes and maintain their quality, and even freeze them whole!

I know most of us will probably be scolded by our grandmothers that tomatoes never, ever go in the refrigerator whole because they start to deteriorate, but I promise you can freeze them with good results.

To start, you need to wash and dry the tomatoes and only use ones that are in perfectly good shape with intact skins.

Carefully cut out the calyx and the surrounding tough tissue, then place the tomatoes on a baking sheet.

Put them in the freezer, set it as cold as it can go, and freeze them until they are totally solid. Transfer to a freezer bag or other container, and they’ll last at least 9 months.

When you’re ready to use, thaw them then prepare them as needed. They’re surprisingly good!

Juiced

If you are a tomato juice fan, rejoice, because you can keep the juice on hand and ready to drink with just a little bit of preparation. Alternately, tomato juice is handy to keep around for making sauces, soups, and more.

You’ve got two choices for storage: tomato juice can be canned using similar procedures to those above and adding acid as normal. Canned juice will last about a year as with the other variations discussed.

Your other approach is to juice the tomatoes, then pour them into freezer-safe jars or other containers for freezing. Storage life is once again about a year, but in my experience, it’s best used within about 6 months.

Paste

If you’ve only ever used canned tomato paste from the grocery store, you don’t know what you’re missing out on. You can make your own paste from fresh tomatoes by pureeing them and then simmering the puree until it thickens considerably.

The finished paste can then be placed in sterilized mason jars for subsequent canning, or other food storage containers for freezing. Don’t just pop it in the fridge, as it won’t last!

Shelf life is around 9 months with high quality in the freezer, or about a year if canned at home.

Sauce

There are too many good tomato-based sauces to count, and you can go ahead and turn your haul of tomatoes into whatever sauces you prefer by pureeing and then simmering them with the required seasonings before canning or freezing as described above.

Depending on the other ingredients you add, though, you might be able to get a few months of storage out of fresh tomato sauce in the refrigerator.

It likely won’t go all through the winter, but if it’s a sauce you use regularly, this is still certainly a worthwhile approach. If frozen or canned, it will last about a year.

Ketchup

One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was trying homemade ketchup. It is so good, so rich and sweet and delicious and perfect compared to the store-bought stuff it completely ruined it for me forever.

Now I have to make my own, and if I want to have it on hand, I’ve got to can a few batches every winter!

But it’s easy to do, and making ketchup is very much like making a sauce, only with the addition of some extra ingredients and sometimes leaving some chunky tomatoes in there. Your best bet for storage is to can it, as mentioned, since you’ll get at least a year of shelf life out of it.

You can also pop it in freezer-safe containers, making sure to leave room for headspace to prevent bursting, and then freeze it for up to 6 months with great flavor.

Chutney

Chutney is basically a chunky relish, and there are many tomato chutney recipes out there with added ingredients like onions, garlic, fruits, and more, along with vinegar, sugar, and various spices.

I haven’t found one that I don’t like, but a classic tomato chutney makes the perfect ready-made meatloaf topping and so deserves its own spot on this list.

Canning is the way to go here, so after you prepare the chutney, it should be poured into sterilized mason jars and then processed according to a tested recipe with a water bath canner.

Owing to the much smaller size of the ingredients, processing time is usually only around 15 or 20 minutes, so it’s quick and easy to make a big batch.

It should last up to a year unopened but only 2-3 more months after you do open it…

Canned Tomato Soup

It’s hard to imagine anything more comforting on a blisteringly cold winter day than tomato soup. If you aren’t a fan of tomato soup with a big grilled cheese, I don’t know what to tell you, but tomatoes are also the primary ingredient in lots of other soups.

Whatever your favorite, whip up your favorite broth with other veggies and potentially even meat, simmering until the veggies are close to done but not cooked all the way through. Prepare your jars, fill, and then pressure can.

Important note: you mustn’t add any pasta or other noodles, rice, cream, milk, or flour to soup if you’re going to can it! These thickeners can interfere with the process and potentially lead to botulism, a deadly illness.

It should last you around 1-2 years depending on the temperature in your pantry.

Salsa

Salsa, as best I know, is the world’s most popular condiment and it’s easy to see why. The combination of juicy tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, and more is delicious with chips and on virtually everything else.

If you have lots of extra tomatoes to use up, this is one of the best ways to do it and then store them easily. You can whip up some salsa, simmer it, then can it in a pressure canner to get up to a year of shelf life out of it.

Trust me; you’ll look forward to popping open a jar whenever you need a salty and savory snack or topping!

Stewed

Another great way to keep tomatoes recipe-ready is to stew them, or cook them, with onions, peppers, and a few seasonings. Some folks even like stewed tomatoes as a rudimentary side dish.

The preparation and cooking are quick and easy, but you’ll have to can your stewed tomatoes to make them last. You can freeze them, but I’ve personally had mixed results…

In either case, expect shelf life to be around 1 year, but if you freeze them it seems like their flavor starts to go downhill after about 6 months. I suspect it’s because of the onions.

Pickled

Pickled tomatoes are a southern favorite, especially pickled green tomatoes. Boil, blanch, peel, and quarter them before placing them in a jar and covering them with a brine of water, vinegar, and pickling spices.

You can go with easy pickled tomatoes, simply placed in the refrigerator, or process them in a canner for maximum shelf life. Obviously, they’ll last a lot longer if you can them, but you can still get a couple of months at least going the refrigerator route.

Whichever way you go, let them sit for at least 2 weeks after they are done for the flavors to fully develop. They’ll be a bit disappointing if you eat them before then.

Fermented

Fermenting is often confused with pickling, and though the two processes are similar, they are, at the end of the day, quite distinct.

Fermentation is caused by various microorganisms, among them yeast, bacteria, and even molds, that subsequently digest carbohydrates and other compounds in the absence of oxygen. As they do, acids and gases are released which both preserve the food and give it a unique flavor.

It sounds totally gross, and I guess technically it is, but if you’ve ever had kimchi or sauerkraut, you’ve already had fermented food.

Fermented tomatoes are extra tangy, but they work well in a variety of dishes and recipes. Done properly and kept cool and in the dark afterward, they last at least 9 months.

Jam

Tomato jam is texturally closer to preserves, or maybe a fine relish, but it has an unbeatable combination of tartness, sweetness, and savoriness that is just outstanding on eggs, sandwiches, and more.

Like many other methods on our list, making tomato jam involves canning assuming you aren’t going to eat it right away.

After blanching, peeling, and chopping the tomatoes, you’ll mix it in with your pectin, sugar, acid, and sometimes other ingredients before simmering it until it thickens and then packing it into your jars.

Shelf life is about 1 year, but I’ll bet you now that they won’t last 3 months once you taste that first jar!

Sun-Dried

Perhaps more than any other method on our list, sun-drying tomatoes produces savory, flavor-packed little morsels that are just indescribably good. Perfect in bread, on pizza, over eggs, and countless other uses, you’ll never get tired of these.

It’s possible to sun-dry tomatoes the old-fashioned way, using the sun, duh, if you live in a hot, dry climate that gets tons of direct sunlight.

Usually, this means you live closer to the equator. If you live in a rainy, damp area, then don’t even try: your tomatoes will mold before they dry out and can be stored.

Assuming the climate cooperates, your sun-dried tomatoes will last about 6 months if kept in an airtight container.

Dehydrated

If you want to enjoy the incomparable flavor of dried tomatoes all winter long, but the weather is just unsuitable for traditional methods where you live, don’t worry about it.

If you have a food dehydrator or your home oven can be set really low, like 200° F or lower, you are in business.

After deseeding and cutting tomatoes into small, uniform pieces, you can dry them over low heat for anywhere from 8 to 12 hours until they’re shrunken and just barely flexible. Store them in an airtight container in a very dry environment, and they’ll last for about 6 months.

Freeze-Dried

The most technologically sophisticated method of food preservation, freeze-drying, is a process by which food is flash-frozen and then placed in an atmospheric vacuum.

This causes the frozen moisture to sublimate, or change from a solid directly to a gas. This leaves behind food, in our case tomatoes, that are nutritionally almost perfect and still have a bright, red color.

They will, though, be hard and crusty and require reconstitution prior to eating or cooking.

The shelf life of freeze-dried tomatoes, stored properly in the right kind of packaging, is in excess of 20 years. That’s incredible! Unfortunately, home freeze-drying appliances are still very expensive, so this method is off the table for most of us.

Powdered

Another easy way to store your harvest of tomatoes is to powder them. Powdered tomatoes can be used as a thickener or like a spice because of their tasty flavor, and it’s the perfect way to bulk up soups and sauces or add a little special something to other dishes.

This way they store wonderfully at room temperature and will last at least 6 months with excellent flavor as long as you keep them totally dry.

To do this, you first start by dehydrating them until they are crisp to the touch or freeze-drying, then you grind them up in a food processor or food mill until they look like, you guessed it, powder. Store in an airtight container and use as needed.