If you follow me on Instagram than you know that I promised a video on easy ways to peel and deseed a tomato. This is directly connected to our post reviewing the book, The Plant Paradox by Dr. Stephen Gundry.
Refresher: Lectins are anti-nutrients in certain foods that can wreak havoc on your gut, creating inflammation and an over-reactive immune system. Tomatoes are a high lectin food. Most of the lectins are in the skin and the seeds.
While Margaret is all about the ‘what’ and ‘why’ around nutrition, I’m all about the ‘how’. Want to keep eating your tomatoes but lower the lectin count? Here’s a quick video showing you 5 methods for easily peeling tomatoes.
Which method you choose is determined by your time and how you’re going to use the tomato. While the freezing method is the simplest (in my opinion), this way is best to use when the recipe calls for cooking the tomatoes.
For tomatoes left raw (in a salad, for example), then you may want to do the knife, torch, or boiling method. In all three cases, the tomatoes stay firm and will hold up well raw.
You can’t go wrong with any of the methods. They all work well. Most important is that you feel confident that you can execute the method safely. A sharp knife is necessary when slicing tomatoes. If your knives aren’t sharp, then use a serrated knife. It won’t slip on the smooth tomato skin and thus is a much safer choice.
You’ll also learn the fastest way to deseed a tomato. Once you learn this method, there’s no going back to something slower. I’ve added a bonus deseeding method that works well too. Consider yourself well equipped for peeling and deseeding tomatoes!
Here’s are the 5 ways to peel a tomato (and 2 ways to deseed them). Enjoy!
Let us know what other cooking videos and kitchen hacks you’d like in the comments below.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Tomatoes are a high lectin food. One way to lower the lectins is to peel and deseed them. Watch this video for 5 easy ways to peel tomatoes. We’ve also thrown in 2 ways to deseed tomatoes, including Chef James’ favorite.” quote=”Tomatoes are a high lectin food. One way to lower the lectins is to peel and deseed them. Watch this video for 5 easy ways to peel tomatoes. We’ve also thrown in 2 ways to deseed tomatoes, including Chef James’ favorite.”]
I grew up peeling and deseeding tomatoes back in Dom. Rep. That was a long
time ago. When I came here is was strange to say the least. I thought it tasted terrible not to peel and deseed them. We just dip the whole tomato in boiling water while it’s held by a fork, just for a few minutes. Peeling was easy, then we’ll slice it and deseeding it with either a spoon or knife.
We are Italian and I always watched my Nonna peel and deseed her tomatoes, too! I never understood why and when I asked her, she didn’t know either. She simply said “the skins and seeds are no good for you”. It’s amazing that these traditions were passed down and many had no idea why, but it worked. That’s why the Italians developed the “Roma” tomato which has few seeds, thin skin, and more meat.
Any vegetable or fruit with seeds is considered a lectin… cucumbers, zucchini, kiwi, strawberries… oh my! Did you ever try to deseed a strawberry? The seeds are all on the outside of the berry and there are a million of them. It is hard to find a food that doesn’t contain lectins. What to eat… oh, what to eat!!