For some recipes, you might need to use peeled tomatoes. In those cases, one option is to use canned tomatoes. But when they are in season, why not use fresh produce instead? Although skinning tomatoes can be intimidating at first, it’s a pretty simple process. In this article, I am going to show you how to peel a tomato easily, no matter how ripe or unripe it is.

Why Peel Tomatoes?

The reason is simple. Tomato skin doesn’t cook very well, and it doesn’t look particularly appetizing in any dish.

So in most cases when you need to add tomato to a dish that’s going to be cooked, you should either use canned tomatoes or peel your tomatoes beforehand. This can be useful when making a tomato-based sauce, soup, or any other dish.

Peeling a Tomato

Peeling a tomato is extremely easy, and I will demonstrate it in the next few steps:

Take a bowl that’s big enough for the tomato (or tomatoes) to fit in. Make a cross-shaped cut with a sharp paring knife at the bottom of the tomato, and place it in the bowl.
Pour boiling water over the tomato until it is completely covered. The skin will be harder to peel where the water doesn’t fully cover the tomato.
Depending on the type of tomato, it will need about 30 seconds to two minutes for the skin to soften fully.
Take the tomato out of the bowl using a spoon. Run cold water over it; this will not only make it easier to handle but also easier to peel.
Peel off the skin gently with the knife.

Blanching

We are basically blanching the tomatoes, which is the technical term for scalding an ingredient (generally vegetables or fruits) in boiling water for a short period of time.

The blanching time depends on the type and ripeness of the tomato. I would say that for a very ripe late-summer tomato, 30 seconds should be enough. For off-season supermarket (i.e. hard) tomatoes, you might need 2 minutes.

The only thing you should be careful about is not cooking your tomatoes. You just want to peel off the thin outer layer, the skin itself. Simply leave them in the hot water for 30 seconds first and try to take off the skin the way I described above. If you find it difficult, place your tomato back in the hot water for another 30 seconds.

Using Canned Tomatoes

When a recipe calls for peeled tomatoes, you can just as easily use canned tomatoes. These are usually summer tomatoes, harvested when ripe and sweet, sometimes much tastier than the ones you can buy in a supermarket.

Just stock up on some of these canned tomatoes in your pantry, and you’ll never again have to peel tomatoes!