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Bite Of Minnesota: Tomato Jam

If you've been reading this blog over the past month or so, I wouldn't be surprised if you are under the impression that I eat a lot of cheese platters and preserve a decent amount of produce through freezing and canning. In fact, it's not far from the truth: I have a love for cheese and a dislike of wasting perfectly good produce.

Tomato Jam
(credit: Crystal Grobe)

In an effort to combine those two things, I couldn't turn a blind eye to the two pounds of Roma tomatoes sitting on my counter, leftover from a bruschetta canning project, of course. Inspired by the fabulous tomato jam made served with the cheese course at Kitchen in the Market classes, I went in search of an easy recipe and found it on a friend's site, Food for My Family. I pared the recipe down a bit since I didn't have all of the ingredients and the results were amazing. After the requisite pictures were taken, I broke out the goat cheese and started slathering both on whatever crackers and bread I had in the house. Luckily, I saved enough to serve on top of spaghetti squash for dinner. This stuff is so delicious and it's already on my canning list for next year (click the link above for the full recipe with canning instructions). The tomato jam would be great on a cheese plate, especially around the holidays, thanks to the addition of cinnamon and cloves. I'm willing to bet it would be great to pass alongside the turkey as well.

Sweet and Spicy Honey Tomato Jam

2 pounds cored tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp red chili pepper flakes
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Combine the tomatoes, honey, sugar, lemon juice, red chili flakes, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, and the cloves in a large pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently as to not scorch. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reduces and becomes a thick consistency, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Let cool slightly and use immediately or transfer to a jar for storage in the refrigerator. Made approximately 1 pint of jam.

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