How To Peel a Tomato and Remove The Seeds

Tamsin from Bristol in the UK told us how she introduced tomatoes to her daughter Brianna two weeks ago. Brianna has just turned 8 months old and is very much enjoying tomato-based sauces served over pasta. Tamsin told us

I was a bit hesitant about introducing tomatoes as I heard they can sometimes give babies a nappy rash – but Brianna is doing really well with them. I’m using fresh tomatoes when I cook for her, but I’ve noticed that she doesn’t seem to like the bits of skin. I find it really hard to peel tomatoes – is there an easy way to do it?

Actually, there is… and here are two ways to peel a tomato quickly and easily.

The boiling water method

Fill a small bowl with boiling water.

Plunge in the tomato and leave for 10 seconds (for small tomatoes) and 15 seconds for larger tomatoes.

If you leave them for longer, they start to cook – this seems like it won’t matter if you were planning on cooking them anyway, but it actually makes them harder to peel because they go mushy inside!

Remove the tomato from the water and pierce the skin with a knife – it will almost ‘pop’ open and will be easy to pull off when it’s cool enough.

The scorching method

This method is the same as the one we use to peel red bell peppers – and that’s by pushing the tomato on to a fork and holding it in an open gas flame to scorch the skin!

Keep it moving (so it doesn’t burn too much in one place) until lightly scorched all over – then just cool and slide off the skins!

The seeds are then very simply removed by halving the tomato and gently squeezing them out.

Did you know that canned tomatoes are healthy, too?

Not only are you saved the effort of peeling them, research has suggested that canned/tinned tomatoes may even be healthier than fresh!

Why?

Because they contain a powerful anti-oxidant called lycopene, which is more useful to the body after it has been heated during the canning process.

Read more about making baby food with canned vegetables and fruits