Tomatoes are much tastier, nutritious and healthier when you eat them in season as usually all tomatoes you find in stores during the winter time are artificially ripened and have no flavour whatsoever.  If you want to enjoy the wonderful flavour of tomatoes during the winter months I would strongly suggest buying them while they’re in season and making your own tomato juice, freezing or canning them.

Making tomato juice has been a summer tradition in our family for as long as I can remember. We’ve always enjoyed it plain, in cocktails such as Bloody Mary or used it as a base for soups. If you cook it a little longer you’ll end up with tomato paste which is awesome for pizza or spaghetti sauces, stews and such. So later in this post you will find an easy recipe for preserving tomato juice for the winter.

There are a number of reasons why you should drink tomato juice (homemade juice in particular) and I am happy to share 7 of them that I think are the most important: 

1. Good Source of Vitamins A, B6, C – According to nutritiondata.com a cup of tomato juice provides 74% of the daily recommended amount of Vitamin C, 22% of Vitamin A and 13% of Vitamin B6
2. Low in Sodium & Sugar – Most store-bought tomato juice is very high in sodium and sugar but by making it at home you can control how much salt and sugar you add, if any at all
3. Great for Losing Weight – Tomatoes contain lots of fiber and have a high water content so drinking a glass of tomato juice before your meals will fill you up faster and you won’t feel as hungry. Also, a cup of tomato juice has only 41 calories!
4. Healthier Skin – Tomatoes contain beta carotene which helps protect your skin against the harmful effects of UV rays
5. Great Source of Potassium & Iron – A cup of tomato juice contains 534 milligrams of potassium that is about 16% of the daily recommended amount
6. Reduced Risk of Heart Diseases, Strokes, High Blood Pressure, Cancer – Tomato juice is rich in lycopene (the substance that makes tomatoes red & a very powerful antioxidant) which helps reduce the risk of certain cancers including prostate and pancreatic cancer according to webmd.com. Lycopene also helps with diseases affected by inflammation such as heart disease and improves cardiovascular health.
7. Improved Vision & Hair – The high content of Vitamin A found in tomato juice helps make your hair stronger and shinier, improves your eye vision and is known to prevent macular degeneration (loss of vision that affects older adults )

And here’s the promised recipe for preserving tomato juice….

Ingredients for 9 litres of tomato juice:

• 33 pounds (15 kg) ripe tomatoes
• ½ cup (100 g) pickling salt (optional)
• ¼ (50 g) cup sugar (optional)
• 3 onions, 3 peppers, 2 stalks celery (I use them for some added flavour but they are totally optional)

Equipment:

• Food Strainer to remove seeds and skins; I highly recommend the KitchenAid Fruit and Vegetable Strainer attachment if you own the stand mixer or an electric food strainer as this will save you a lot of time if you’re making large quatities
• Glass bottles & caps or jars & lids; I recommend using jars if you like thicker juices since it will be hard (if not impossible) to get it out of the bottles.
• 2 large pots; one for boiling the tomato juice and the other one to process the jars/bottles after filling in a boiling water bath
• Ladle for distributing juice into bottles & a canning funnel

Directions:

Wash tomatoes and remove the tough part around the stem and any bruised or soft part. Cut tomatoes into quarters or smaller pieces so that you can easily pass them through the vegetable strainer.

Pass the tomatoes through the vegetable strainer to remove the seeds and skins. Pass the skins & seeds through the strainer at least one more time, you will be surprised how much juice is still left. I have used a hand crank food strainer all my life but this year I bought the KitchenAid Fruit and Vegetable Strainer Attachment (got the pack that includes the Slicer/Shredder, Food Grinder & Fruit/Vegetable Strainer to save some money). It works great and saved me so much time, I love it!

Now if you don’t have a food strainer there are other ways to remove the tomato skins and seeds. Place tomatoes, a few at a time, in a pot of boiling water for 30-45 seconds. Remove them and drop them into a bowl with ice water. The skins should slide off of the tomatoes. Then cut the tomatoes in half and use a spoon (or just your fingers) to remove the seeds. Lastly, blend the tomatoes in a food processor until smooth.

Place the tomato juice in a large pot and add the peeled onions, the peppers with no seeds and stems, celery stalks, salt and sugar. Bring everything to a boil and then let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. If you want tomato paste just cook it for longer until it reaches the desired thickness.

I recommend getting your jars or glass bottles ready before you start making the tomato juice. You can use the dishwasher to sanitize them, just run it on the “sanitize” cycle right before you begin making the tomato juice. If you don’t have a dishwasher, wash them in soapy water and rinse them thoroughly. Allow them to drip-dry for 15-20 minutes and then place them in a pan (or right on the rack) in the oven set to 225F (100C) to sterilize them. Leave them there until you are ready to pour the juice. Make sure the lids/bottle caps are clean and dry as well before using them.

Place the sterilized jars/bottles on a baking metal pan and fill them with tomato juice. If they’ve already cooled off it’s better to pour half a ladle of tomato juice in each jar/bottle to allow the jar/bottle to reach almost the same temperature as the tomato juice. Then fill them all leaving 1-1.5 cm headspace.

Wipe the jars/bottles with a clean damp paper towel to remove any residue. Place lids /bottles caps on top and and process them in a water bath.  For the water bath you need a large pot with a rack or other spacer at the bottom so that jars/bottles do not rest directly on the bottom of the pot. Or if you want to keep it simple just add some newspapers on the bottom of the pot (newspaper layer should be about 1/4 inches or 2/3 cm thick) and make some deep cuts with a sharp knife to let the bubbles in the boiling water escape. Add enough hot water to cover the jars/bottles by 1 inch (2.5 cm). Bring the water to a gentle boil and process them for 45-60 minutes. Remove the jars/bottles from the water and cover them with a blanket until they are completely cooled.