Tomato Juice

I had one last bowl full of tomatoes from the garden sitting on the counter.  I decided to make some homemade tomato juice in the crockpot.  I didn't follow a recipe so I don't really have any measurements but this is what I did.

I estimate I had about 4 pounds of tomatoes.  These were the orange tomatoes that I picked in the garden a few weeks ago before the rain hit. I just let them ripen on the counter.  I cut them in halves or quarters and threw them in the crockpot.  I added about 2 teaspoons of dried basil, 2 teaspoons of minced garlic, 1/4 cup chopped carrots, 3 chopped bell peppers, about a teaspoon of salt, several chopped hot peppers (padrons, cherry bombs, Thai peppers, and jalapenos.)  I added about 2 cups of water and cooked it on low for about 8 hours.  After 8 hours, I ran it through the sieve to separate out the seeds and the skin.  Using the sieve also "squished" the other vegetables so that I would just get the juice and the pulp.

Tomato Juice cooking in the crockpot.

I don't usually like tomato juice but this batch was pretty amazing. It had just enough "bite" from the combination of hot peppers.  I ended up with just over 2 quarts of juice.  I will leave some of it in the refrigerator for my husband to drink and put some in the freezer to enjoy later as juice or in soup.

Delicious Tomato Juice

Usually, I use the recipe in my Ball Blue Book for Tomato Garden Juice Blend and I can it.  Since my husband is the one that drinks it, I can usually get his help. As I was writing this post, I searched the Ball website:  freshpreserving.com and I could not find this recipe.  It is in my 2009 version of the Ball Blue Book. I did a web search and I found it on www,recipelion.com.

Comment below if you give this recipe a try!  It would make some amazing soup broth if you don't like to drink tomato juice.