31 Recipes to Prove There's No Such Thing as 'Too Many Tomatoes'

If you're anything like us, you've got piles of ripe tomatoes waiting for you to do something with them. But don't worry. We've got 31 ideas for what you can do with your summer bounty.

Tomato season is a time to look forward to, but most tomato lovers can agree that it's both a blessing and a curse. If left to our own devices, we could easily eat tomatoes every day for the rest of the summer, if only we didn't run out of tomato recipe ideas before we ran out of tomatoes. If you're looking for new ways to make use of fresh tomatoes before you start hiding them away in jars for the winter, we've got 31 ideas to share.

Tomato Summer Pudding

Tomato Summer Pudding by Epicurious
Before you scoff at tomato pudding, hear us out. No, it is not quite like the custard cups you find at the grocery store. It's more like a casserole that you'd serve as a side dish. Bread gives the "pudding" structure, but this recipe doesn't mess with the purity of the ripe tomato's flavor — there are only six ingredients including garlic and olive oil — so you can expect to want to make and eat this more than once.

Braised Chickpeas with Tomato, Spinach, and Feta

Braised Chickpeas with Tomato, Spinach, and Feta by Yummly
This dish boasts many classic ingredients of the Mediterranean diet: tomatoes, chickpeas, feta cheese, and spinach. It's basically a tomato stew, but with bright bites of briny cheese and creamy legumes. This can be served on its own alongside Italian bread, or you can serve it over rice, couscous, or quinoa. It's an excellent veggie meal, hearty enough to satisfy even dedicated meat eaters.

Scalloped Tomatoes

Scalloped Tomatoes by Saveur
Scalloped tomatoes should not be confused with scalloped potatoes — it's a lot simpler and it doesn't involve any cheese or cream (and it has an option to use olive oil in place of butter to make it vegan). But, just like scalloped potatoes, slices of tomato are layered with fresh herbs and breadcrumbs before baking it into a crispy summertime side dish.

Preserved Tomatoes

Preserved Tomatoes by Eat Smarter
Preserving tomatoes is a bit like a quick-canning process. Instead of preparing jars and blanching the tomatoes, all you do is boil sugar, salt, and vinegar together and then pour the mixture over roma or plum tomatoes in a jar and let them cool. When they're done, you can use them for whatever you'd use canned tomatoes for; like tomato soup or pasta sauce.

Summer Burst Zucchini Pasta Salad

Summer Burst Zucchini Pasta Salad by Kimberly Snyder
If you're over plain old tomato salad, let us suggest this Summer Burst Zucchini Pasta Salad. It's kind of like the kitchen sink of summer produce in that it uses up all the veggies that our gardens spit out in buckets (except for fresh corn, but who says you can't add some?). The zucchinis get turned into zoodles and are topped with enough cucumbers and tomatoes to make any farmer proud.

Tomato Chutney

Tomato Chutney by NDTV Food
If your family likes ketchup, try mixing things up a bit with a tomato chutney (fancy ketchup). You probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry — onions, garlic, ginger, spices, and tomatoes. It's all cooked together to make a spicy sauce that pairs as well with french fries as it does with rice or chicken.

Tomato Confit

Tomato Confit by Compelled To Cook
Tomato confit is another condiment that puts your garden tomatoes to work in delicious ways. The tomatoes are blanched, shocked, and peeled before joining the garlic, salt, herbs, and olive oil in the roasting pan to cook. The veggies are then packed into a jar until you're ready to put them on top of toast, mix them into pasta, or spoon them over grilled chicken or pork. This recipe calls for regular tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, but you can substitute whatever kinds of tomatoes you find at the farmers' market or grocery store.

One-Skillet Shakshuka Eggs

One-Skillet Shakshuka Eggs by Everyday Gourmet with Justine Schofield
Shakshuka might be my favorite way to eat tomatoes. The exact origin of the dish is unclear, but it's common in the Middle East and it's a staple in some North African cultures. It's kind of like spicy tomato-braised eggs that you can eat with toast or crusty bread. This recipe doesn't call for red peppers, but if you have one on hand, you can throw it in with the onion. The final dish is very filling and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

30-Minute Sheet Pan Chicken Caprese

30-Minute Sheet Pan Chicken Caprese by Yummly
Caprese salad is a summer essential, but we take this favorite a jump further and pair it with chicken. It's a very easy recipe — the chicken breasts are baked and then topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, and fresh basil, and then drizzled with balsamic vinegar. It's hard to mess up and even harder to resist.

Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce

Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce by LunaCafe
If you've braved eating a tomato and watermelon salad then you're ready for the next adventure: Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce. As we have been taught, strawberries and tomatoes are both fruits, right? So maybe we should've been eating them together this whole time. All you need to make this sauce is sugar, fresh lime juice, and red currant jelly (but you can probably get away with using other red-fruit jams).

White Bean and Tomato Soup

White Bean and Tomato Soup by Real Greek Recipes
If there are thunderstorms in the forecast or you're starting to feel summer shift toward fall, a slow cooker could be the answer to your excess tomatoes — whether they're heirloom tomatoes, grape tomatoes, or roma tomatoes. This tomato recipe is super simple and is made up of pantry staples: cannellini beans, a couple of carrots, some celery, olive oil, and tomato paste. It's a naturally vegan soup, too, so you can't go wrong.

Tomatoes Provençal

Tomatoes Provençal by Garlic And Zest
Tomatoes Provençal sound very French and very fancy, and they are! But they're not hard to make. Really, they're stuffed tomatoes, but only with a few herbs, garlic, and breadcrumbs. This recipe is pretty simple which means you have some room to play around if you want — you could throw in some parmesan cheese or, if you're feeling rebellious, a bit of browned sausage to give it a little more heft. But they're also good as-is in this vegetarian dish.

Fresh Tomato and Herb Bread

Fresh Tomato and Herb Bread by Daring Gourmet
Here's a recipe for the bakers who haven't tried kneading tomatoes into their bread dough. To get the tomatoes tender enough to knead, they're roasted, which also brings out the sweetness of the fruit. To complement the tomatoes, some herbs are thrown in — oregano, parsley, sage, and dill, to name a few — so it teams well with mild cheese or salted butter, but it would also work very well with smoked turkey or chicken salad.