Try those tomatoes green

The Internet is a wonderful tool in many ways but so many sites are full of facts that are, shall we say, exaggerated to the point where they are no longer facts. Nutrition sites are no exception; when you’re looking for information on the health benefits of certain foods, you’ll often find wildly excessive claims and comparisons. Green tomatoes are a case in point. Several websites report that green tomatoes have three times the calcium of red tomatoes and three times the amount of vitamin C. Well, not quite.

The unripe tomato does have a bit more calcium than the red one, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. A large, ripe tomato weighing 182 grams has 18.2 mg of calcium, 2 percent of your daily recommended dose A large unripe tomato weighing 180 grams has 23.4 mg of calcium, which is also 2 percent of your daily recommended intake. Now, I’m not very good at math, but even I can estimate that 23.4 is not three times as large as 18.2.

Now actually, there is quite a bit more vitamin C in a green tomato than in a red one: 42.1 mg versus 23.1 mg. So, twice as much, which is in fact quite a lot. One large green tomato will give you 70 percent of your daily recommended dose of the vitamin, while one large red tomato will provide 39 percent.

Internet sites similarly report that the red tomato has way more potassium and vitamin A and K than a green tomato. Way more? Well, a little more. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but trust me when I tell you that if you eat a green instead of a red it won’t play havoc with your nutritional intake. There are some differences but they’re slight; both kinds of tomatoes are pretty darn healthy.

I had actually been searching online to find out if there are any disadvantages to eating unripe tomatoes. There isn’t anything definitive. Some sites hypothesize that green tomatoes eaten in excess can cause migraines. But other sites theorize that all tomatoes have a lot of niacin, a vitamin that can help fight migraines. As with many dietary triggers, there is no definitive answer; if you eat a lot of green tomatoes and get a migraine, then you might want to stop eating them.

Cancer-fighting lycopene seems to be the one nutrient that is definitively found in higher amounts in red tomatoes. The proof? It’s the lycopene that causes tomatoes to turn red.

The obvious reason why I’m doing all this research is that my kitchen counter is overflowing with all the green tomatoes I just pulled in from my garden. There is little hope that they’ll turn red outside; some of them might ripen inside by a window, but some of them definitely will not. And yes, yes, I’m going to fry some of them and grill some of them. But once I’m done with that, I’ll still have about 40 green tomatoes.

I first learned about green tomato marmalade at the New York Times website. But the recipe there turned out disappointingly watery and sour. This one, adapted from one found at foodista.com, is utterly luscious. It’s very easy and although you get the health benefits of the tomatoes and citrus fruit, it does have quite a bit of sugar in it. Be sure to wash the fruit first and cut off the “tails;†for the tomato, you should also cut out the hard core that is just below the stem.
Green tomato, lemon and
orange marmalade

Adapted from foodista.com

1/2 cup water, one seedless orange thinly sliced and then cut into quarters, one lemon seeded and thinly sliced and then cut into quarters, four large green tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)  cut into 1/2-inch pieces, 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt, additional 1/2 cup water

Combine the half cup of water and the citrus fruit in a heavy bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven and cook for about 15 minutes over medium heat, until the fruit is tender.

Add the tomato, salt, sugar and additional half cup of water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Then bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat and simmer vigorously (biggish bubbles) until the liquid has reduced and you have a thick jam. This can take anywhere from two to three hours depending on how wet your tomatoes are.

Unless you’re an experienced marmalade-maker, it’s tricky to know when it’s ready. But some things to look for: The jam will go from clear liquid to dark brown, and the bubbles will begin to get glassy.

If you cook it too long, the tomatoes will start to blacken and the jam will become so thick it will be almost a hard candy; it will still taste great but it will be hard to spread. You can thin it out by heating it up gently; add water.

If you like a little bite to your marmalade, add some chopped up bits of candied ginger in the last 30 minutes of cooking.