Green Tomato Weekend

Green Tomato Weekend and
Chicken / Green Tomato
Crock Pot Chili
by Cheryl L. McClure

What to do with all those green tomatoes? I asked and got some great ideas from my friends on Facebook, thank you! There's fried green tomatoes, chicken/green tomato chili, salsa verde, and other various relishes to make.

The first thing to do is separate the tomatoes that are turning pink. Set those aside to ripen and either blanch and freeze or use right away.

We had a freeze coming so I had to get  to work. And fast! So, not only did I harvest tomatoes, I had poblanos, bell peppers, banana peppers, habanero peppers, sage, oregano, basil and mint!! Whew!

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I have a regular dehydrator so I use that. One day, I will grow up and get an Excalibur, but for now this will do! I sliced and seeded the poblanos, bell peppers and habaneros (which I will use in the spring for garlic-pepper tea). After I filled the dehydrator, I saved out some poblanos for roasting.

The herbs are easy, just take the leaves off the stems, wash and spin in a salad spinner. Lay out on a paper towel and dry in the microwave. I zap them in 2 minute intervals watching and checking til I see that they're dry. The sage did not crush by hand so well, so I crushed it in the magic bullet and made a nice powder out of it. Then label and store all these in glass jars.

Since I wanted to make Chicken Tomatillo Chili (using my green tomatoes instead), I had some thinking to do and get it all straight in my head first. What to chop, what to roast, what to freeze after roasted, what to dehydrate, what to freeze after slicing flat. Now that I've typed it out, I know why it took me so long to figure it all out! LOL

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First I have to tell you that the little Patio Container Tomato Bush I bought at Wal-Mart, put out consistently all summer long. They weren't the prettiest tomatoes, but I found that when I pulled them just as they started to turn pinkish, they wouldn't split as bad. They were great in salads, on sandwiches and I even made some for pasta sauce.

So if you want to try this one, look for Bonnie Plants - Patio Container - Determinate. And plant it in your flower bed!!

Any who, here's what I did and what you could do:

• Wash and sort small tomatoes for roasting, larger for freezing raw for fried green tomatoes.

• Cut the ends off each tomato, make two or three medallion slices about a quarter inch thick and then quarter. Till it fills the bowl.
  

Next:

• Add about 3 or 4 large cloves of minced garlic crushed with the Pampered Chef garlic crusher. (these are the best, btw!)
• Pour a little olive oil - maybe a tablespoon or so - onto the tomatoes.
• Stir it all together in the bowl and then dump onto the cookie sheet to make one layer. I roasted two pans at a time.
  

For the whole roasting process, I ended up chopping and preparing tomatoes, onion and poblano. I wanted to preserve some roasted poblano in the freezer as well as using some poblano and onion in my chili.

• Roast at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, take out and flip it all over and then put back in for another 15 minutes.

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I got so excited about making my chili I put half the pan full of tomatoes and part of the poblanos in the food processor and THEN remembered to take the picture.

Done with that part!

• After it all cooled, I labeled 1/2 quart freezer bags and stored tomatoes to use later for soup, chili or Salsa Verde.
• For the rest of the larger tomatoes, I sliced the same way but did not chop. Tops and bottoms off, then sliced the middles to make about a quarter inch medallions. These, I laid out on a cookie sheet with foil and froze flat so they would not stick together so much when I put them in a freezer bag.

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Peppers are so pretty and since I had a few bell peppers and banana peppers left, I decided to halve and seed them, brush with olive oil and roast. Then I froze them flat to keep in the freezer. These, I will be able to take out later and top with a meaty Italian tomato sauce and cook for dinner.

Chicken/Green Tomato Crock Pot Chili

Last but not least, I finally got to my Chicken Green Tomato Crock Pot Chili. I found two recipes online that I liked and adapted to make my own.

• Roasted, Half a pan of chopped green tomatoes (or 7-8 medium green tomatoes)

• Roasted, 2 poblanos
• Roasted, 3 cloves of fresh minced garlic
• Roasted, 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• Two crock pot cooked chicken breasts, chopped
• Chicken broth from crock pot ( or 4 cups chicken stock)
• Extra water to cover
• 1 can green chilis
• 2 tsp. Cumin
• 1 tsp. Coriander
• 3 tsp. dried Cilantro (fresh is better)
• 1 tsp. White Pepper

After roasting the veggies, put them in a food processor and pulse till smooth.
Chop the chicken and combine everything into the crock pot. Set to highest setting for about an hour, then reduce to low for an hour or two. I cooked mine for about 4 hours. We had so much left over that it's better every day that we heat it up! Add a drop of lemon or lime essential oil for added flavor! See my page and check it out here> Essential Oils

I hope you find something useful here. Maybe you too, will find that there really IS something you can do with green tomatoes!!

Have fun!
Cheryl

#greentomatoes #chili #peppers #freeze # dehydrate #youngliving #essentialoils #crockpot