Easy & Delicious Roasted Tomatoes

Looking for a nourishing addition to breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

Try these simple, oven-roasted tomatoes.

Not only are tomatoes a good source of potassium, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and folate, but they’re loaded with a healthful phytonutrient carotenoid called lycopene.  It’s lycopene that’s responsible for the fruit’s red (or orange or yellow) color (botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruit).  Growing medical research has found that lycopene acts as a powerful antioxidant in the body and can prevent against heart disease and various forms of cancer, including prostate, breast, pancreatic, and intestinal.  Regular consumption may also help lower one’s risk of stroke.  Cooking tomatoes helps maximize the bioavailability, a.k.a. absorption, of their lycopene content.  

Here’s How to Make These Simple Roasted Tomatoes:

Note: Like most of our recipes, feel free to be creative!  Also, it’s not 100% necessary that the tomatoes roast at 375˚F.  If you’re cooking something else in the oven at the same time at a higher or lower temperature, simply throw the tomatoes in and adjust the cooking time as needed.

Ingredients

  • A few Vine-Ripe, Plum, or Beefsteak Tomatoes
  • Good Quality Olive Oil
  • Fresh Basil and/or Parsley
  • Sea Salt
  • Fresh Cracked Pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375˚F.  Rinse and pluck the stems off the tomatoes.  Wash and trim the stems off the herbs.
  2. Drizzle a little olive oil into a baking dish or pan. Spread evenly.
  3. Slice the tomatoes in half and place face down in the baking dish.  Rub a little more olive oil over the tomatoes.
  4. Slip a little basil and parley underneath each tomato half.  Sprinkle some salt and freshly cracked pepper over the tomatoes.
  5. Stick in the oven.  After about 30 minutes, use a metal spatula to flip the tomatoes over.  The tomatoes should be nice and juicy at this point.  Spoon some of the juices that have gathered in the baking dish over the tomatoes.  Feel free to sprinkle some more chopped or torn basil and parsley on top of each tomato half.
  6. Bake for another 30-40 minutes, basting once or twice more in the interim.
  7. Enjoy fresh out of the oven or the next day. I love them both ways!

 

Recipe & photos by Sophie Slater