Wondering how to deseed a tomato without the mess? Here’s the simple 2-minute method I use — no special tools needed, just a knife and a bowl.
After all these years of cooking, I’m still finding there are still many new things to learn in the kitchen.
The other day I was working on a food photoshoot for a client and the recipe called for 1 “deseeded tomato”.
I found myself googling “how to deseed a tomato”, and figured I probably wasn’t the only one who didn’t know how!
Why do we need to deseed tomatoes?
My research told me that the purpose of deseeding tomatoes is that tomato seeds are the culprit for causing dishes to become watery and have an unpleasant texture.
In salad, for instance, the gooey watery substance of tomato seeds can make the lettuce wilt quickly.
Recipes like fresh tomato sauce, tomato paste, and tomato juice instruct to peel tomatoes and de-seed them. Deseeded tomatoes are also nice to dice and use as a topping on salads or dips (like this delicious ground beef taco dip). If I take a few minutes to deseed the tomatoes, I find my Greek Salad stays fresh longer, too.
Simple steps to De-seed tomatoes with pictures
I wasn’t mixing up a huge batch of tomato sauce, but I just needed to deseed 2 tomatoes. Here was the easy trick and straightforward method I used to do so.
1.Cut off each end. 
2.Make a small cut along one side. 
3.Run a knife around the inner part of the tomato, removing the seedy part.
4.Scoop seeds into a bowl for easy disposal. 
5. Slice 
6. Dice – a serrated knife works best.
Deseeding tomatoes can be done with little effort and helps make lovely diced tomatoes for salads and toppings. I especially love them for greek salad.
For more cooking & baking tips, check out these posts:
- How to sift flour without a sifter
- How to use parchment paper safely in your kitchen
- How to make pie crust from scratch
- How to freeze mushrooms
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How To Deseed Tomatoes
Simple steps for how to deseed tomatoes so you can slice and dice them for salads and toppings, or use them in sauces.
Supplies
Tools
Steps
- Wash the tomatoes well.
- Using a sharp serrated knife, lay the tomato on its side on a cutting board and slice off the stem end and the bottom.
- With the tip of the knife, cut from the top of the tomato straight down toward the center.
- Gently pull the tomato apart to reveal the flesh.
- Run your knife around the edge of the red flesh and scoop the inner seeds into a bowl to discard them.
- Cut the tomato in half, then slice and dice it to the size your recipe calls for.
