Cherry Tomatoes - Ways to Use Them Besides Eating Them Directly Off the Vine

These miniature tomatoes and similar varieties (grape, plum) have mighty-mite flavors, which makes them popular to many dining connoisseurs. To others, however, they might seem to have too much skin in proportion to their small size and strong tomato taste. Thus, to offset any dislikes for them, they can be used to enhance the flavor of several assorted dishes as follows, thanks to my spouse who is a great cook.

Eating like candy (for tomato lovers). Stockpile whole ones for snacking-on them directly between and during meals.

Tomato salad. Cut them up for a marinated dish in a fairly thin dressing of sorts. Add bits of raw green pepper, onion, cucumber, zucchini, and small amounts of wine or balsamic vinegar if desired.

Casseroles (e.g., tuna, goulash, succotash). Add halved portions to these dishes in moderate amounts before cooking.

Italian dishes. Use chopped ones for making chunky spaghetti, ravioli, or pasta sauces (cooked, sauteed, or roasted). Also, top-off frozen pizzas with them; they add plenty of fresh flavor to this cooked product without adding extra moisture.

Egg dishes. Add chopped or sliced pieces to omelets, scrambled or baked recipes.

Soups/stews. Because these tomatoes are fairly firm throughout, add halved or whole ones to these dishes before or during cooking.

Mac and cheese. Add several pieces to this dish before cooking it for a slight flavor change. Be careful not to overdo it for any children's sake. They might not like it this way.

French Crepes (cooked). Add raw pieces to a separate and to be fully cooked multi-ingredient crepe filling, or add them to the cooking crepe as a last-minute ingredient during the final cooking stage.

Mexican dishes (tomatoes are common to these). Add raw pieces to the fillings for these dishes (enchilada, burrito, quesadilla etc) before cooking them. For example, relative amounts of these chopped tomatoes work well with a cheese-onion filling for enchiladas.

Pickling (hors d'oeuvres). Pick and pickle the green ones (usually done in early autumn) by using one of several recipes found on the Internet or in cook books. A cold-pack dill-pickle/vinegar-brine recipe works well for making appetizers and similar side dishes with them. Celery, garlic, and peppers often are included.

Conclusion. Although these bite-sized tomatoes have strong flavor and many eating/cooking uses, home growers might want to gauge the amount of time needed to harvest a large crop of them first. For more information on this now-called vegetable, see the following sites.