Yes, you read that right. Green tomatoes.
Try not to think about it too hard.
We have loads of green tomatoes and I hate to let them freeze on the vine but I don’t have the room to pull up the vines and hang them until the tomatoes turn red.
I needed another idea.
I’d heard rumors of a terrific green tomato mincemeat recipe and I wanted to use my abundance of green tomatoes for that. So, we made some regular mincemeat bars with a jar of canned mincemeat to see if the kids would like mincemeat at all.
Um. No.
Scratch the green tomato mincemeat.
But it did get me to thinking about spicy apples and green tomatoes together. I wondered if an apple pie filling would have enough spice to trick young taste buds into thinking green tomatoes were apples.
It worked. This really does taste just like regular old apple crisp.
Try it. Do it when no one else is around. Don’t tell anyone what’s in it. They’ll love it. My kids loved it and they knew about the tomatoes.
How to make Green Tomato – Apple Crisp: Printable
Filling:
1/4 cup butter
5 small apples
5 green tomatoes about the same size as the apples
1 1/2 cups sugar [brown or white or a combination of the two]
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 T lemon juice
Melt the butter in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook until everything is soft and the liquid starts to evaporate some. Let it get as thick as you want. Pour into greased 8×8 inch pan.
Topping:
1/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup oats
Blend all ingredients except the oats with a pastry blender to combine well. Add oats. Stir well. Sprinkle over hot apple filling.
Bake at 400 degrees until topping is brown.
Robin from Rurification blogs at Rurification. Do you have a recipe post or kitchen-related story to share on the Farm Bell blog?
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brookdale says:
This sounds very good! You must have to core, peel and slice the apples and tomatoes, right?
On October 4, 2011 at 7:06 am
kellyb says:
Robin,
This brings me back to my childhood. Every year at Thanksgiving my aunt would make green tomato “apple” pie. Everyone in the family claimed it tasted just like apple pie, except for me. I never did acquire a taste for it but perhaps that’s because I was a kid. Looking out the back window at all those green tomatoes has me thinking we might have “apple” crisp tonight. Great post.
On October 4, 2011 at 9:52 am
TeaCup says:
Thank you! Just pulled the first green tomatoesI have no intention of ripening out of the garden. There’s a bowl full, and before Friday I’ll have a good many more no doubt. (We’re scheduled to get our first hard freeze Fri.)
I’ve made green tomato mincemeat, but DH and I only use mincemeat in a chicken dish and so it sat unused mostly, as we both liked the commercial stuff better. We’re over 50 and fat/heatlth conscious, so fried green tomatoes wouldn’t be my first choice.
Thanks again!
Judi
On October 4, 2011 at 4:21 pm