Veggie: Green Tomatoes from the Vegetable Garden

Summer is officially over and yet in some places, frost has not wiped out the vegetable garden. Those who are master gardeners, or who followed the advice in my article, Growing Tomatoes: Are You Getting a Great Harvest from Your Tomato Plants?, probably have a plethora of green tomatoes hanging on the vine, just waiting to be turned into fried green tomatoes. However, fried green tomatoes aren't the only way to serve that unripened veggie. Below is a list of links to recipes that will have you rushing out to pluck the remaining veggies in the vegetable garden and whipping up something delicious, namely a salsa, hash, or a crisp, using those not-yet-ripened green tomatoes. And, of course, no list would be complete without a recipe for fried green tomatoes, would it?

Classic Fried Green Tomatoes
This recipe received 5.5 stars out of 6 at About.com: Southern Food. It certainly seems worth making, and I intend to to pick those tomatoes before the frost hits and cook up a batch following the instructions! Try these fried green tomatoes and see what you think. (Fried in bacon grease for a not heart-healthy, but yummy dish.)

Green Tomato Salsa
If you like salsa, this green tomato salsa recipe from FoodAndWine.com sounds interesting. It's made fresh, with onions and green tomatoes as the key ingredients. They're cooked on the grill and then combined with spices and lime juice for a salsa that the site says goes well with grilled, jerk chicken.

Green Tomato Hash
I'll be the first to admit that I never thought of adding green tomatoes into hash, and yet the recipe at About.com: Southern Food sounds delicious ... and easy to fix, since it's baked in the oven. Give it a try.

Green Tomato Crisp
Associated Content contributor, Alban Mehling, invented this dessert after making and eating a number of green tomato pies, reporting to friends how good they were, and then ending up with a deluge of green tomatoes from everyone as a result of his comments. If you're looking for a yummy dessert, this crisp might just be the one you'll enjoy.

Because pickling and bottling are a little trickier than using the green tomatoes in a fresh state, and because those two methods require strict adherence to proper methods in order to avoid spoilage and botulism, I've not included them in this list. However, if you'd like to try a few, you can find a wide assortment of bottled/pickled green tomato recipes at Associated Content.

Lastly, if you don't want to go to the trouble to cook anything, you can always put the green tomatoes in a single layer in a box, in a humid, cool spot and let them ripen. However, don't set them aside and forget about them until Thanksgiving like I did one year. The aroma of rotting tomatoes just about knocked me over when I opened the box!

Sources:
About.com: Southern Food
Associated Content.com
FoodAndWine.com
Embedded links as listed above.

(Disclaimer: The author has published this list based on the fact that the recipes seemed easy to prepare and/or sounded tasty. She has not personally tested each recipe, so please feel free to leave comments and adjustments to any recipe tried.)