If you want your tomatoes as flavorful as the day you bought them then we recommend not putting them in the refrigerator. When tomatoes are put in the cold enzymes in the tomatoes are killed. While this used to be viewed as a myth, passed around between friends and family members, scientists have now proved this to be true. When tomatoes are placed in the refrigerator, they still remain relatively fresh, however, they have a lot less flavor than non-chilled tomatoes. These studies have been done on all variations of tomatoes, cherry, heirloom, and conventional and all have shown to lose flavor when placed in the refrigerator for storage. One or two days may not make a huge difference in the flavor, but the longer they stay refrigerated, the more enzymes are suppressed affecting the “volatile compounds” that provide flavor. Researchers have been able to figure out which genes specifically in tomatoes are impacted by the chilled temperature. A fun fact is that tomatoes have around 5,000 more genomes than humans, they have a total of about 25,000. On average a few hundred of these genes are affected when a tomato is placed in the refrigerator causing it to lose its flavor. Remember next time you get tomatoes from the grocery store, make sure to store them in a pantry or on a counter!
Here at Cuisine for Healing, we keep our tomatoes in the pantry to provide our customers with the most flavorful tomatoes. We offer many dishes that are made with tomatoes or garnished with them! Below is a recipe for our new Balsamic Chicken Caprese Salad, garnished with cherry tomatoes.
Cuisine for Healing’s Balsamic Chicken Caprese Salad
Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 2 Cups Chicken Breast, Marinate in Balsamic for 30 minutes
- 1 tsp Olive Oil
- 8 Cup Spinach
- 2 Cups Cherry Tomatoes
- 1/4 Cup Basil
Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 1/2 Cup Olive Oil
- 1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Honey
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
Directions:
- Make the dressing by mixing the dressing ingredients together thoroughly, coat chicken completely with the mixture, and bake for 15 minutes at 350, or until chicken reaches an internal temp of 165.
- Prepare the salad base by halving the tomatoes and chopping the basil. Once the chicken is cooled, dice the chicken in a large dice. Assemble salad, spinach on the bottom, a row of quinoa, a row of tomato, a row of chicken, sprinkled with basil on top.
