50+ Green Tomato Recipes (2024)

Green tomato recipes are an old fashioned tradition meant to ensure every last bit of the harvest is put to good use. Don’t let those underripe tomatoes go to waste, there are so many creative ways to use green tomatoes (besides the ever-popular fried green tomatoes).

Every year my tomato plants set fruit well into the fall months…only to be killed by early frosts in our short 100 day Vermont growing season. We’ll top the plants with spare bedsheets to protect them from light frosts, but when temps well below freezing those tomato plants are done for.

With a killing frost on the way, it’s time to strip the plants bare before nightfall. That often means buckets, baskets, and totes filled to the brim with green tomatoes.

With patience and good airflow, many of those underripe beauties will still ripen on the counter over the next few weeks. Many though, will spoil in buckets long before they ripen.

This isn’t exactly a new problem, and resourceful gardeners have been cooking up green tomato recipes for generations.

Green Tomato Canning Recipes

Since green tomato harvests usually come by the bucketful in the fall, it’s no surprise that there are literally dozens of ways to preserve green tomatoes.

You can’t fry them all, but it’s easy enough to preserve green tomatoes with enough creative green tomato canning recipes.

Green tomatoes are actually more acidic than fully ripe tomatoes, and their texture holds up better to prolonged cooking. Add in a flavor that works equally well in savory and sweet recipes, and you’ve got the perfect vegetable for everything from pickles to pie filling.

Yes, really…home canned green tomato pie filling…

There are so many green tomato canning recipes, I’ve separated them into savory and sweet.

Savory Green Tomato Canning Recipes

Green tomatoes maintain their crunch better than cucumbers for pickling, but they also make excellent salsa, ketchup, and chutney.

All of these recipes are perfect for water bath canning, but they also make great refrigerator or freezer preserves as well (no canning required).

Green Tomato Sauces & Salsas

The National Center for Food Preservation notes that you can substitute green tomatoes in place of tomatillos in any sauce or salsa canning recipe, so keep that in mind.

But if you’re looking for a perfectly portioned green tomato sauce or salsa recipe, here are some to get you started:

Green Tomato Relish

Chow Chow Relish is traditionally made with green tomatoes, as are some picadilli recipes. It’s all about using up the end-of-season veggies all in one simple preserve.

Green Tomato Picadilli ~ Southern Kitchen
Canning Green Tomato Picadilli ~ National Center for Food Preservation
Green Tomato Chow Chow Relish ~ Attainable Sustainable
Fall Garden Relish ~ National Center for Food Preservation
Rummage Relish (Kitchen Sink Relish) ~ National Center for Food Preservation
Green Tomato Relish ~ Taste of Home
Pickled Green Tomato Relish ~ National Center for Food Preservation
Spicy Green Tomato Relish ~ Life’s Ambrosia

Green Tomato Pickles

While regular tomatoes are too soft to make a good pickle, green tomatoes soak up flavor from a sweet or savory pickling brine and keep their crunch too.

There are traditional recipes for pickled green cherry tomatoes, since those little jewels are extra special, but you can also use whole sliced green tomatoes.

Pickled Green Tomatoes ~ Creative Canning
Pickled Stuffed Green Tomatoes ~ Natasha’s Kitchen
Romanian Style Green Tomato Pickles ~ Where is my Spoon

Green Tomato Chutney

Though it’s most popular in the British Isles, it’s delicious anywhere!

Try your hand at these green tomato chutney recipes…

Green Tomato Apple Chutney ~ David Lebowitz
Green Tomato, Apple & Pepper Chutney ~ Farmersgirl Kitchen
Green Tomato Chutney ~ Lovely Greens

Simple Green Tomatoes

If you’re just looking to can green tomatoes on their own, that’s fine too!

Canning Green Tomato Slices ~ A Farm Girl in the Making

Sweet Green Tomato Canning Recipes

I know, it sounds strange, but green tomatoes are actually amazing in sweet preserves. I was really skeptical, but I absolutely loved old-fashioned green tomato jam.

Don’t knock it until you try it…

Canning Green Tomato Pie Filling ~ National Center for Food Preservation
Sweet Spiced Green Tomatoes ~ National Center for Food Preservation
Green Tomato Marmalade ~ The Messy Baker
Old Fashioned Green Tomato Jam ~ Creative Canning

My homemade green tomato jam

Green Tomato co*cktails & Drinks

Never would have guessed there’d be enough drink recipes using green tomatoes to warrant their own category.

Green Tomato Bread, Soup & Salads

Unripe tomatoes can fit in just about anywhere, and they’re great at adding moisture to quick breads.

Green tomato cornbread is particularly lovely, and it’d go well with green tomato soup!

Roasted Green Tomato Soup ~ With Food and Love
Roasted Green Tomato Soup in a Sourdough Bowl ~ Food and Wine
Green Tomato Muffins with Cheese ~ Southern Lady Cooks
Green Tomato Quick Bread ~ Nums the Word

Green tomato quick bread from Nums the Word

Green Tomato Main Courses

If you really need recipes using a lot of green tomatoes, then dinner’s the way to go.

Turn them into the main course, and you’ll work through your harvest in no time.

Southern Style Pizza with Fried Green Tomatoes & Bacon ~ Ask Chef Dennis
Green Tomato Chilli~ Farm Fresh Feasts
Savory Green Tomato Cobbler ~ Food52
Green Tomato Chipotle Mac and Cheese ~ The Brewer and the Baker
Scalloped Green Tomatoes ~ Martha Stewart
Savory Corn and Green Tomato Cakes ~ Syrup and Biscuits
Savory Green Tomato Gruyere Tart ~ The Egg Farm
Southern Bistro Shrimp and Grits ~ Nourish and Nestle

Southern Bistro Shrimp and Grits with diced green tomato from Nourish and Nestle

Green Tomato Desserts

There are a surprising number of old fashioned desserts made with green tomatoes. I told you they were versatile!

(Besides, toss just about anything with enough sugar and cinnamon and stick it in a pie crust, it’ll taste like apple pie. It works for mock apple pie (with zucchini) and ritz cracker pie too!)

Green Tomato & Raspberry Pie ~ Not Entirely Average
Green Tomato Bundt Cake ~ My Diverse Kitchen
Green Tomato Cake with Browned Butter Frosting ~ Paula Dean
Green Tomato Chocolate Cupcakes ~ Ciao Chow Linda
Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie ~ Southern Living
Mock Apple Green Tomato Pie ~ House of Nash Eats
Green Tomato Pie ~ Grit and Pinecones

Green Tomato Pie from Grit and Pinecones

Cultured & Fermented Green Tomato Recipes

Home fermenting gets more popular every year, as people discover just how easy it is to make your own nutritious pro-biotic vegetables.

If “healthy” isn’t really your thing, you can always ferment a bit of green tomato wine too…

Lacto-Fermented Green Tomatoes ~ Learning and Yearning
Fermented Green Tomatoes with Hot Peppers ~ Nourished Kitchen
Garlic Dill Fermented Green Tomatoes ~ Grow Forage Cook Ferment
Georgian Style Fermented Green Tomatoes ~ Bake Street
Lacto-Fermented Green Tomato Salsa ~ Thank Your Body
Fermented Green & Red Tomato Salsa ~ Healing Harvest Homestead
Fermented Green Tomato Chutney ~ Mountain Feed
Fermented Green Tomato Relish ~ One Green Planet
Green Tomato Wine ~ Urban Overalls

Lacto-Fermented Green tomatoes with garlic and dill from Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment

Fried Green Tomato Recipes

There’s no way I can end a list of green tomato recipes without covering classic fried green tomatoes. Sure, they’re well known, but there’s more than one way to get the job done.

Seasoning? Single or double batter? Deep fry, pan fry, air fry, or bake?

So many tasty options for cooking up a humble green tomato.

Classic Southern Fried Green Tomatoes ~ Noshing with the Nolands
Baked “Fried” Green Tomatoes ~ Drugstore Divas
Low Carb Air Fryer Green Tomatoes ~ Temecula Blogs
Fried Green Tomatoes with blue cheese, crab & balsamic Reduction ~ The Good Hearted Woman
Loaded Fried Green Tomatoes ~ Southern Fatty
Fried Green Tomato BLT ~ Food Network
Oven-Fried Green Tomatoes ~ Sweet Cayenne

Oven-Fried Green Tomatoes from Sweet Cayenne

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FAQs

How long does it take for green tomatoes to turn red? ›

Once the tomato is full size, it takes about 20-30 days for the full-size green tomato to turn red. This will vary a little depending on the variety you plant in your garden. When the tomato reaches its mature green size, the plant is stimulated to release ethylene which will start the ripening process.

Why do you only fry green tomatoes? ›

It turns out that green tomatoes hold up well to the process of being sliced, dredged and fried, and the slightly sour flavor pairs well with a crunchy, salty coating. The best tomatoes to use are firm and green throughout, with optimum slices of one-third to one-half inches wide.

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Will large green tomatoes ripen off the vine? ›

Like many fruits, tomatoes continue to ripen once they've been picked. Ethylene is a gas produced by fruits, including tomatoes, that promotes ripening. Many commercial tomatoes are actually picked while still green for shipping and ripened at their destination by introducing them to an ethylene-rich environment.

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Can you freeze green tomatoes for future use? ›

What to do with all of your green tomatoes? Here is a perfect method of preservation – freezing! When we start planning our gardens, we don't really think about how to utilize nature's little surprises. By surprises, I mean literally HUNDREDS of green tomatoes at the end of a growing season.

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Can you eat green tomatoes before they ripen? ›

Eating tomatoes before they're ripe means you don't get the full taste and flavor benefits, but allowing them to ripen on the vine means animals or bugs may get to enjoy them before you do. Fortunately, it's possible to ripen green tomatoes after you've plucked them from the vine.

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How do you make unripe tomatoes taste better? ›

Unripe or out-of-season tomatoes are mostly water, and don't have the sugar and acid that juicy mid-August tomatoes do. Cooking the tomatoes low and slow in olive oil and heavy seasoning will concentrate their flavor, drawing most of the water out.

How do you force green tomatoes to turn red? ›

To ripen green tomatoes, place them in a closed paper bag and store them in a warm location. By keeping the tomatoes together, the ethylene they emit will promote ripening. You can speed up the process by adding a ripe banana or apple. Once a tomato ripens, remove it from the bag and consume it promptly.

Can you eat too many fried green tomatoes? ›

Both tomatine and solanine are toxic so it is not wise to eat green tomatoes in large quantities. Solanine poisoning can cause unpleasant symptoms like fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, drowsiness and lethargy.

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Do fried green tomatoes taste like regular tomatoes? ›

Fried green tomatoes have a slightly sour (but not in a bad way), tangy flavor that is complimented by the fried, crunchy coating. The acidic green tomatoes mellow out when cooked and the firm to the point of being crunchy texture softens but doesn't turn to mush.

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How do you preserve fresh green tomatoes? ›

Peel and core green tomatoes and chop in cubes ½ -inch or less in size. Drain. Dry in food dehydrator at 140°F. When perfectly dry, store in glass jars or freeze.

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How do you store green tomatoes for later use? ›

Keep unripe green tomatoes stem side down, in a paper bag or in a cardboard box in a single layer. Place in a cool area until they turn red in color. Perfectly ripe tomatoes should be kept at room temperature on the counter away from sunlight.