Note: Availability fluctuates throughout the year, please understand the described items below are educational. To confirm availability please inquire with us directly.
By themselves or combined with other foods, tomatoes are delicious! In plant families, the deep, rich red coloured tomato is categorized as a berry fruit. Of course, we who eat them consider tomatoes to be a vegetable. Raw or cooked tomatoes have a juicy flesh filled sections of slippery seeds and a watery environment.
Although sugar acid content, texture, and colour are very important, the aroma is considered a major quality trait. Instead of a dessert-like fruit sweetness, tomatoes are more subtle. Its sweetness is complemented by a slightly bitter and acidic taste.
The following are the fabulous mainstays at Ralph’s. With such a variety, it’s easy to enjoy them as part of our daily diet!
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Beef Steak
Any of several varieties of tomato having large, round fruit with thick flesh. Beautiful, rich red beefsteak tomatoes weigh in at a hefty 14 to 16 ounces and mature early.
How to Enjoy They are especially good for salads, slicing thickly to stuff in sandwiches or hamburgers, grilled, stuffed, and baked. Aslo, beef steaks can well but tend to be juicier, so they’re excellent for soups and sauces that simmer to evaporate the excess fluids.
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Cherry
The small, bite size garden variety of tomato is usually an inch or less in diameter, has a bright red or yellow colour, and often sweeter than standard tomatoes – with the red variety being the most flavourful.
How to Enjoy Delightful raw as a snack, added to salads, and its brilliance makes it a common garnish for other foods. When cooking, leave them whole, or slice larger ones in half. Serve sautéed, tossed in a stir-fry at the last minute, cooked lightly for a side dish.
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Field Tomato
There are two types of round field tomatoes, ‘mature green’ and ‘vine ripen.’ The main type of tomatoes grown is the mature green tomato. Harvested early, while still green yet properly matured to continue ripening after picking by its natural ripening agent, ethylene gas. Mature green tomatoes have a long storage life, slice well, firm and are generally more cost effective than other varieties.
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Grape
A variety of tomato that is small and oblong. Although yellow exists, it is more commonly available red or in colour and slightly smaller and much more flavourful than a cherry tomato.
How to Enjoy Most often used whole in salads, as a bite-sized snack food or an appetizer roasted whole to savour its sweet intense tomato flavour.
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On-The-Vine
Nothing beats a tomato eaten straight from the vine – producing a mouth-watering earthy flavour. Picked when fully ripen, these gorgeous rounds appeal to the experienced, sophisticated cooks.
How to Enjoy Wonderful fresh in salads or as snack, and great for a light saute.
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Roma
An oval, egg-shaped tomato with good flavour and a wonderfully thick flesh. It is approximately 3 inches long, an inch or two in diameter and is available as a red or yellow tomato. This tomato is also known as the Italian, Plum, or saladette tomato. Romas are grown in North America and are readily available.
How to Enjoy Its lower water content produces a thick and flavourful sauce or paste, so Romas are perfect for canning. A fantastic tomato for cooking and canning, as well as a flavourful choice for salads.
HOW TO CHOOSE
In days gone by, the summer months were marked with the sweet juiciness of a vine-ripened tomato. Today, tomatoes are available year-round, thanks to BC Hot House and imports. From July through September, you will still be able to reminisce, since BC’s local fields are freshly picked for the offering.
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bright and vibrantly red coloured (Select those that are a lighter red when they will not be used for a few days.)
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noticeably sweet smelling
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plump and juicy
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firm but not hard
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smooth well-formed ones
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heavy for their size.
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To hasten ripening, place in a brown paper bag with a banana or apple at room temperature, since the ethylene gas they release will increase the tomato’s maturation. Check daily for peak readiness, up to several days.
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Overripe – In contrast, if the tomatoes begin to become overripe (or during winter months when tomatoes are more highly perishable), but you are not yet ready to eat them, place them in the refrigerator (if possible, in the butter compartment which is a warmer area), where they will keep for one or two more days. About 30 minutes prior to use, the tomatoes should be removed from the fridge to encourage them to regain some of their flavour and juiciness.
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Partially used – If the tomato has been sliced, you can preserve it more up to a day by storing it at room temperature with a piece of plastic covering the side that has been sliced open, laying it flat on a plate.
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To freeze – Whole tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, and tomato sauce freeze well for future use in cooked dishes.
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Simply make a slit in the skin and being to remove the skin with the edge of a knife.
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Alternatively, heat the tomato until the peel begins to crack. This may take some practice to get it right if using a microwave, but when the tomato is heated to a point that does not turn it to mush or explode the inner flesh, the outer skin comes off easily. Drop it into boiling water for one to two minutes. Then remove and place briefly in a bowl of ice water. Cut out a small cone around the stem end and slip off the skin.
When grating tomatoes, use a firm fleshed tomato – romas are excellent . Cut in half and grate it with the large grater holes. The pulp will be somewhat watery but will be thick in texture.
To core a tomato, use a paring knife slicing a cone-shaped cut around the stem and pulling it out after slicing.
Cooking Tips
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Do not use aluminum cookware since their high acid content will interact with the metal. This may result in the leaching of the aluminum into the food, which in an unpleasant taste, and may produce health risks.
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Cooking lessens the acid and bitter qualities in tomatoes and emphasizes their warm, rich, sweetness.
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Slice them over eggs or in a frittata in the morning
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Eat them raw as a snack or an appetizer
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Juice them
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Garnish or add to salads – whole baby tomatoes are especially nice. To keep things colurful, use yellow, green, and purple tomatoes in addition to red ones.
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Enjoy classic ‘Italian’ salad, using sliced onions, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese drizzled with olive oil.
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‘Tabouleh’ is a salad like no other. Made with fresh veggies, olive oil and spices, it can be eaten in pita bread, scooped onto pita bread, or traditionally with a fork. It is really delicious, easy, and good for you made with Bulgur wheat or Couscous that you soak in hot water, olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. Then add parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumbers red peppers, and scallions. It’s better the next day!
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Salsa: Combine chopped onions, tomatoes, and chili peppers for an easy to make salsa dip.
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Cold Soup: Purée tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and scallions together in a food processor and season with herbs and spices of your choice to make the refreshing cold soup, ‘gazpacho’. The Mediterranean’s gazpacho involves tomato, cucumber, and sweet pepper along with olive oil, onion, garlic, wine vinegar, and sea salt. Yum!
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Add tomato slices to sandwich or on toast topped with:
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salt and a little butter
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salt, pepper & olive oil
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basil and fresh mozzarella
- feta cheese, olives & fresh basil
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Toss them in stir fries
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Halved tomatoes can also be broiled. Place them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and broil until the tops are lightly browned, about five minutes.
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Stuff them: Tomatoes make an attractive dish when stuffed with crabmeat or with sautéed vegetables, such as spinach and mushrooms, and baked.
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Roast them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes until they start to caramelize.
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Add to soups, stews, sauces or puree to make soup out of the tomatoes themselves!
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Used in soups, stews, and sauces. Cook them with herbs, onions, and garlic to make homemade spaghetti sauce.
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Tomatoes are a great addition to bean and vegetable soups.
Like its colour tomatoes are red-hot for health promotion! Its deep rich colour – phytonutrient red pigment, lycopene – is a powerful carotenoid antioxidant that may help fight and prevent many cancers (colorectal, prostate, breast, endometrial, lung, and pancreatic) and is found in the entire tomato, including the seeds. In fact, studies have shown best results when eaten along with broccoli.More good news – tomatoes:
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are free, sweet, and high in vitamins A & C.
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have potential to help the reduction in heart disease risk
- juice is a natural anti-inflammatory
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may reduce blood-clotting tendencies, since tomatoes are a very good source of vitamin K. By the way, 17.8% of the daily value for vitamin K, important for bone health, is found in one cup of raw tomato.
Tomato, 1 medium whole (raw, ripe)
Calories: 26
Protein: 1.04g
Carbohydrate: 5.7g
Total Fat: 0.406g
Fibre: 1.35g
*Excellent source of: Vitamin C (23.5mg)
*Good source of: Vitamin A (766 IU)
*Foods that are an “excellent source” of a particular nutrient provide 20% or more of the Recommended Daily Value. Foods that are a “good source” of a particular nutrient provide between 10 and 20% of the Recommended Daily Value.
Please Note Research studies on food consider tomatoes as one of the top foods to consider when experiencing an allergic reaction.
FUN FACTS
- Round, ripe, and red, the tomato, 16th century England thought of it as the ‘love apple,’ and grown largely as an ornamental fruit for fear of being poisonous. Now we know that this caution was wise, since the leaves of the tomato plant, but not its fruits, do contain toxic alkaloids. Known for passion, the Italians introduced the tomato to its cuisine much earlier, and the same for Mediterranean cooking with similar reasoning.
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Like green peppers, green tomatoes are simply unripe. Their taste is tart, even sour, and will make your mouth pucker if you eat them raw. However, they are used for preserves and cooking, and are often dipped in cornmeal and fried.
OF INTEREST
- You will benefit from 3 times as much lycopene when selecting organic over non-organic ketchup.
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Tomatoes are originally native to the western side of South America, including the Galapagos Islands. It is believed that the first type of tomato grown looked a lot like the smaller-sized cherry tomato than the larger varieties.
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The arrival of tomatoes to North America came with the colonists who first settled in Virginia. Even still, popularity was not earned until the late 19th century. With new varieties and improved transportation, today tomatoes are stocked in most North American kitchens.