Can You Freeze Roasted Cherry Tomatoes?

3 minutes

Roasting cherry tomatoes enhances their flavour and brings out their sweetness. They can be roasted with a range of flavourings and spices but can you batch roast cherry tomatoes and then freeze them?

How To Freeze Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

If you want to know the exact process for roasting then freezing cherry tomatoes, here’s our step-by-step guide:

1. Wash and Roast
   Gather up the beautiful cherry tomatoes that you’d like to freeze and gently wash them off. You are then ready for roasting. At this stage just follow your favourite roasted cherry tomato recipe.
2. Cool On a Baking Tray
   Allow your tomatoes to cool fully after roasting. Then just spread your roasted tomatoes across a baking sheet. Be sure to spread them far enough apart that they aren’t touching.
   
   You don’t want to end up with one giant block of frozen roasted cherry tomatoes.
3. Freeze
   Slide the baking sheet into the freezer and allow your roasted cherry tomatoes to become fully frozen. This typically takes about 2-3 hours.
4. Bag Up
   Once your roasted cherry tomatoes are frozen solid, remove them from the freezer and place them into a freezer bag or container. Be sure to squeeze out all the extra air before closing the bag.
5. Freeze Again
   Mark the ziplock bag or container with the date you’ve frozen the tomatoes and pop them back in the freezer for future use.

3 Tips for Freezing Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing roasted cherry tomatoes to have the best results:

Flash Freeze
By flash freezing the tomatoes on a tray, you prevent them from clumping together when frozen making it much easier to grab a handful at a time. 

Label with the Flavour
If you’ve roasted some tomatoes with garlic and thyme but have roasted another batch with chilli and lemongrass then make sure you include these flavours on the label.

Try Other Tomatoes
Don’t limit yourself to cherry tomatoes! Other tomato varieties roast really well. If you’ve got some sad-looking tomatoes sitting in the fridge then don’t hesitate to toss them into the mix.

How Long Can You Freeze Roasted Cherry Tomatoes?

Your roasted cherry tomatoes will typically stay for about 6-months in the freezer. After that, the tomatoes may begin to lose their nutrients and flavour. This is a huge difference compared to the 5 or 10 days you would get while they’re fresh.

You Can Freeze Roasted Cherry Tomatoes for Around 6 Months

How Do You Defrost Roasted Cherry Tomatoes?

Thawing your roasted cherry tomatoes is even easier than freezing them. You don’t have to worry about thawing out the entire bag. Simply pick out the number of tomatoes you’re going to need for your recipe and pull them out of the container.

Be sure to squeeze the air back out of the ziplock bag and reseal it before placing them back in the freezer.

Put the tomatoes into a container and place them in the fridge or leave them on the counter. Give them a few hours on the counter or overnight in the fridge and they’ll be ready to add to any recipe you choose.

Can You Refreeze Roasted Cherry Tomatoes?

We would not advise freezing them, defrosting and then refreezing them as the texture can degrade along with the flavour. 

The only exception we would make is if you have changed the form of the cherry tomatoes. For example, if you defrost them to then make a pasta sauce which you then want to freeze. This will be perfectly fine to do.

Do Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Freeze Well?

It’s important to have the right expectations when you’re freezing cherry tomatoes. Freezing fresh tomatoes can lead to a loss in firmness and texture but roasting them before freezing can make a huge difference! 

You might still find a slight texture difference but if you are using them to add to sauces or in recipes you won’t notice the texture change at all and will just get that delicious roasted tomato flavour.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing roasted cherry tomatoes or tomatoes in general, then these may help:

How Do You Roast Cherry Tomatoes?

Decide whether you want to freeze whole cherry tomatoes or halves and cut them up accordingly. Toss in a bowl with a pinch of salt, a drizzle of olive oil and leaves from a sprig of thyme or rosemary.

Spread out on a baking tray and roast in the oven at 210c fan (230c without) for 20 minutes if using halves or 25 minutes if using whole tomatoes.

How Do You Make a Sauce with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes?

Once you’ve roasted your tomatoes, you have the perfect base for a pasta sauce. Soften some onion and garlic in a pan and then tip in your roasted tomatoes with a splash of water and cook for 30 to 40 minutes over the lowest heat.

The tomatoes will break down further leaving you with a delicious sauce, perfect for pasta. And yes… You can freeze your sauce!