How to Peel a Tomato

It's another beautiful spring weekned, and I wanted to suprise Mike with his favorite side: homemade salsa! It's also known as ugly dip, but I figure when I individually chop the ingredients it's salsa, instead of when I get lazy and just throw it all in the blender/Cuisinart.

These are early vine-ripened tomatoes, so they're pretty small. I didn't want to peel them with a knife because 1. it takes so long and 2. it inherently takes some of the tomato meat with it. So I figured I'd blanch them. You have probably already heard of this process, but it was my first time, and I was really pleased with the results.

You'll need a pot of boiling water, a bowl with ice water, tongs, and tomatoes.


Core the tomatoes by just removing the little hard patch at the top where it connects to the stem. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for 15-25 seconds. Suprisingly, it does not cook them! Watch carefully, and you'll see the skin begin to split. That's when you dunk them in ice water.

You can use a knife to get the skin started, but really, it pulls off suprisingly easily.

This tomato has no peel! Check out how much meat was saved versus knife-peeling. Voila - peeled tomatoes, ready for the salsa!