The BEST Stewed Tomatoes Ever recipe! This easy to make recipe simmers tomatoes for 30 minutes to make homemade stewed tomatoes that can be served as a dinner side dish or can be canned. This how to make recipe shows you how easy they are to make! Find out why everyone considers them THE BEST! We always use this as a canning recipe for our Summer garden tomatoes!
Homemade Stewed Tomatoes Recipe
Stewed tomatoes, sigh.
Our tomatoes are turning red faster than I can pick them! So, naturally, my kitchen has turned into a full-blown tomato factory. Between roasted cherry tomato sauce and homemade diced tomatoes I’ve been cooking up every tomato dish imaginable. Oh, and let’s not forget fresh tomato salsa—because August always means fresh salsa!
These stewed tomatoes are the best, and I’m not fibbing either. If you’ve got a tomato harvest coming up—or if you just want to ditch the canned stuff—please, please, please make these! You won’t regret it.
If you love tomatoes as much as I do, get excited—I have so many favorite garden tomato recipes to share with you. But for now… let’s talk about these stewed tomatoes.
One of my favorite ways to enjoy them? Macaroni noodles and stewed tomatoes—it’s simple, cozy, and one of those dishes that instantly takes you back home. Or, if you’re craving something ultra-comforting, stir them into crockpot mac and cheese for an extra boost of flavor.
And because no tomato-filled meal is complete without a side of something warm and buttery, I highly recommend serving it with a slice of sweet cornbread. That perfect balance of sweet and savory? YUM!
These stewed tomatoes are the best, I’m not fibbing either. If you are having a tomato harvest soon or would like to make your own instead of the canned version, please please please please please make these!
How to Make Stewed Tomatoes Video
These are really the best stewed tomatoes ever!
This is a recipe that might cause you to faint, I’m warning you now. I was expecting average stewed tomatoes, but I ended up sitting at the counter with a spoon eating them out of the pot when they were done. Matthew was in another room, so I knocked on the door.
”Matthew? Are you there?”
”What? What’s wrong”
”Can you come here?”
”Why are you crying?”
”I just made the best stewed tomatoes.”
”Are you crying?”
”Yes”
”Why?”
”Because they are so good.”
This was a actual conversation over stewed tomatoes. Seriously, they are that good!
How to Make Stewed Tomatoes From Scratch
So what kind of tomatoes work best for stewed tomatoes? I find that beef and roma/plum both work well. Don’t worry about mixing them if you have to either. I do it all the time.
Don’t be scared of this quick boil tomatoes, it will be over quickly!
And look at that.. now you’re in a ice bath! Think of it as a pool and relax.
Because of the quick boil, the skins will peel right off.
Discard the skins (compost!), or come up with something to do with them. I like to use the skins to make tomato powder which can be sprinkled in soups, casseroles, sandwiches, etc.
So now we have all our tomatoes, naked and bashful! Throw them in a large pot.
Add all our ingredients, stir and put on the stove. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the consistency is how you prefer your stewed tomatoes. Be sure not to boil off all the juices, that’s one of the joys of stewed tomatoes.
When the stewed tomatoes are done, serve them up right away if you’d like…
They are quite pretty and delicious so they compliment so many dishes nicely!
Or throw them in a mason jar in the refrigerator for tomorrow…
Or throw them in a freezer bag and freeze them for dinner in December. How fun is it to grab homemade garden stewed tomatoes to add to a meal while it’s snowing out?
ENJOY!
Pin for later:
The Best Stewed Tomatoes Ever
PrintIngredients
- 10 tomatoes beef or roma variety
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil, plunge tomatoes in for 30 seconds. Remove, put immediately in a ice bath.
- Peel the tomatoes. Discard the skins.
- Dice the tomatoes up to desired size.
- In a large pot on medium heat, combine all ingredients.
- Simmer for 30 minutes.
- Then serve fresh or you can freeze them.
Barb says
I used stewed tomatoes in pasta dishes, so added a couple of jalapenos, some onion, and lots of fresh garlic. DELICIOUS and so much better than anything you can buy in the store. Learning that I could freeze it was such a bonus, as canning is a ton of work! Thanks!
Mary Ann says
This is my go to recipe every Summer when we have a lot of tomatoes. I used to add jalapeno peppers to it, but my husband can’t tolerate those very well anymore. Was his favorite Summer time recipe. Now I make it as directed in recipe and he still enjoys it just as much.
BRAD I says
Wow, you get really emotional about stewed tomatoes.
Pamela Reed says
It’s true love.
Stephanie Zock says
If more people used this recipe we would all get this emotional about stewed tomatoes. Thank you! Made it as directed except subbed onions instead of green peppers, delicious!
Pamela Reed says
Hahaha, right! They’re THAT good! Thanks for stopping by Stephanie! 🙂
Christine Brown says
This is a great recipe, and I highly reccomend it. Yummy.
Pamela Reed says
So happy to hear you liked it! 🙂
Darlene Terry says
I excluded the peppers and used minced garlic from the jar. Oh my goodness this is delicious. After cooking I blended the stewed tomatoes in my vitamin. Delicious soup and spaghetti sauce even before adding any additional ingredients!
Paddy Bateman says
This recipe is dynOmite! Love the flavour, just used my last frozen bag from last summer. So easy, so flavourful. Thank you so much!
Dianna says
Hi Pamela,
I found a link that might answer the questions about waterbathing this recipe (and other similar stewed tomato recipes) safely using a waterbath. This is from the UMN Extension:
https://extension.umn.edu/preserving-and-preparing/canning-minnesota-tomato-mixture
Hopefully, this will help your readers about safely waterbath canning your recipe.
G. Wright says
Nothing better than the sweet fresh taste of stewed summer tomatoes. Thank you.
Shann Hogue says
What kind of green pepper do you use? Bellpepper, serano, poblano, jalapeno?
Pamela says
Hi Shann, use green bell pepper.
G. Wright says
I used red bell pepper
Nita says
Bell pepper
Zora says
I personally like some spice so I add hatch green Chile and a jalapeño. However, I also use this for salsa!
Carla Strong says
I made this. I added about 1/4 of an onion it was very good . I will make it again
Laurie says
Making your stewed tomatoes for the first time. I wanted to add a small amount o f bread when do I add that for a thicker consistency ? I am excited to try this. I am branching out from the recipe that have made for 25 years because yours sounds good
Linda Cornelsen says
I love this easy and delicious recipe. I use it to store my garden tomatoes for soups and chili during those cold months. So easy and so good! Thank you for sharing.
Laura says
I love this recipe! This is my 3rd year using it. I will either can or freeze it depending on what I have time for. Since no one seems to want to answer this (maybe because they don’t want to give bad information?) I’ll give you all my experience with canning. The only change I make is that I add onions to the recipe – probably same as the amount of green peppers – and I do a huge stockpot at one time. Usually 6-7 batches at once. I let it cook/simmer for hours. I like to cook off quite a bit of water. I keep it super hot and ladle into hot pint jars. I add 1/2 t. lemon juice, only b/c I don’t know if I should add it or not and adding it doesn’t hurt anything. Then I seal with warm lids and put jars in my hot water bath canner to process/boil for 40 mins. When done, I bring jars up out of water on the canner insert and let sit for 10 mins and then remove to towels on my counter top and leave undistrubed for 24 hours. No one I’ve served these to has died yet…at least not because of the stewed tomatoes lol. Thanks for the recipe…it’s freaking amazing!! It would be super helpful though to answer canning questions or put the info in the receipe if you’re going to mention that you can them. I add the tomatoes to soups and chilis and it takes my basic recipe to an out of this world flavor!
Kimberly says
You were not kidding Honey!!! These are so delicious!!! They bring out every aspect of what makes fresh tomatos so delicious. I am in love. Thank you 😊
Ron Bacon says
I cannot find how you can these. What is the method and times please
Suzanne says
pour hot stewed tomatoes into jars, add 1 tsp lemon juice per pint and process in water bath or steam canner for 10 minutes.
Mona J Twining says
Go to the Ball Metal web site and you should be able to find out how to can stewed tomatoes. I think they still publish a canning book.
Sandra Williams says
This recipe is really delicious this will be my 3rd time making them..think I’m going to use a little bit of onions this time..thanks so much..now to figure out how much ingredients to can say a bushel..
Carol Taylor says
I had stewed tomatoes growing up and since I no longer had my mother to ask about fixing them looked up to see what I could find on the internet.. It gave me a good idea in canning them. I only had onions in them growing up and will stay with that combination. But I do appreciate the info here.
pat says
What Measures are you taking to be safe from Botchulism
Andi Colmery says
Looking forward to trying this! Came home to an abundance of tomatoes😃. I can’t eat green peppers though. Have you ever used onions or red peppers instead?
Pamela says
Hey Andi, you can either use red bell peppers or add in onions (I’d use 1/4 cup!). Enjoy the tomatoes! 🙂
Treva mcmaster says
Love this recipe an over abundance of ripe tomatoes
Pamela says
So happy to hear you liked these stewed tomatoes Treva! 🙂
Charlie says
Very Good
CVelsini says
This is my THIRD year with this recipe! Tomatoes are ready to be p/u from the farm market tomorrow morning. By tomorrow evening, my stewed tomatoes will be canned for another year. Thank you so much for posting this recipe. In Jan & Feb, I’ll be singing your praises as I use them!!
Charlene says
This is my THIRD year with this recipe! Tomatoes are ready to be p/u from the farm market tomorrow morning. By tomorrow evening, my stewed tomatoes will be canned for another year. Thank you so much for posting this recipe. In Jan & Feb, I’ll be singing your praises as I use them!!
Melissa G. says
I used tomatoes from my garden and they turned out really good! Thanks for a great recipe
Sandra Williams says
We loved this recipe made it last night.Making it again tonight this time I added a1/4 cup of onions a little blk pepper and a half top minced garlic..thanks were really enjoying them planning on buying enough tomatoes to freeze some..yummy.
Dr. Lloyd says
Spot On!
Elizabeth Martin Davis says
I can’t wait to try this delicious sounding recipe
Laurel says
All I have to say is “Yum!”
Jerrie Sanders says
I made this tonight. It was so good!!! I’ll be making it again!
Paddy Bateman says
Just ate the last frozen bag of these Best Stewed Tomatoes I made from August, 2021. With bow tie pasta, bits of broccoli and topped with bacon and grated pecorino cheese is to die for! The flavour is out of this world. Am going to be making a lot more of this recipe this summer. Can not believe the taste, Chef Ramsay, step aside…this is DELICIOUS! I give it 10 ⭐️‘S and so does my husband!
Pamela says
I had 2 flats of fresh tomatoes on the Vine like you buy at HEB I found your recipe it is like the one I used 25 years ago and had lost the recipe. By the way I put up 75 tomatoes in quart size zip lock bags. They are so handy and so much better for you than the store bought ones Thanks Pamela Sparks