Streamlining Tomato Halves

Posted by on Thursday Jun 7th, 2012 | Print

This tip’s all about efficiency. It’s a weird one! But stay with me.

When you’re cutting a million cherry tomatoes each into two perfect halves this summer for panzanella, baked chicken, and pasta, you’re going to be seriously happy to know that instead of slicing one tomato with each cut, you can slice about 15. Sure makes those pints dwindle faster.

To make slicing tomatoes like slicing a bagel, you’ll need two plastic lids - the kind you get from Citarella or on wonton soup containers. And you’ll need a serrated knife. Then instead of cutting lots of tomatoes individually, you cut lots of tomatoes all at once because the lids hold them in place while you saw across. It’s a tada!-inducing moment when you see how many tomatoes you’ve cut at once.

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  • http://makingitawkward.blogspot.com/ Rachael

    This is GENIUS. Ever since I got a perfect-outside, rotten-inside grape tomato a few summers ago, I insist on halving all of my grape and cherry tomatoes, so this is going to save me so much time!

    • http://www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com/ BGSK

      That is hilarious (at least in retrospect…)! Glad to help. :)

  • http://twitter.com/sont Son Tran

    absolutely brilliant!

  • Jayne

    Love this! I will be trying this for sure!

  • http://cookieandkate.com/ Cookie and Kate

    This is totally brilliant, Cara!

  • SixKidsMom

    I’d love to see the “lid slicer”. (I know it’s not as pretty in a picture as the shots you’ve given us.) Plus, I can’t imagine the tomatoes will all be cut as perfectly as those in the photo…unless you’re lining all the tomatoes up in rows in the lower lid. Is that what you do?

    • http://www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com/ BGSK

      Ha! I promise, you don’t have to line them up neatly or anything. They just have to be in one layer, and it works best if you fill up the lid so there’s less movement. The tomatoes will all be perfectly cut - try it!

      • kristi

        Can you do this with grapes too

        • http://www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com/ BGSK

          I bet! Never tried though - report back if you do.

  • Donna

    Brilliant!!! I don’t even eat tomatoes, but I will have to invite some friends over who do, and a make dish with them in it just to be able to use this cool technique! <3 it!

    • kristo

      Can u do this with grapes also