Tomatoes are fruits of the Solanum Lycopersicum plant, yet they’re usually regarded as vegetables and utilized in cooking. Tomatoes have a pleasant, fresh flavor and are often red. However, they can also be yellow, orange, or purple. They’re high in vitamins C and E and antioxidants like beta carotene and lycopene, both of which offer several health benefits.
Basic Types of Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes are one of the most versatile tomatoes available and a favorite of tomato fans around. These tomatoes are a kitchen staple, bringing a burst of color and taste to any dish with red, orange, yellow, and purple types. Cherry tomatoes are sweet and tangy and can be roasted, grilled, sauced, dried, or even eaten raw if you can’t get enough.
Grape Tomatoes
Grape tomatoes are crisp and crunchy, with a range of flavors from sweet to acidic. Grape tomatoes retain their meaty texture when cooked, thanks to their thicker skin, making them a terrific accompaniment to a major dinner dish—whether you’re roasting them in the oven, throwing them into pasta, or serving them as a colorful side dish to steak, poultry, or fish.
These tomatoes are also fantastic for snacking on raw, whether you prefer the candy-like sweetness of a red grape or the tangy bite of a yellow grape.
Beefsteak Tomatoes
Large, strong, and firm enough to keep their shape when thinly cut, beefsteak tomatoes are ideal. One large (182-gram) beefsteak tomato with a 3-inch (8-cm) diameter contains 33 calories, 2 grams of fiber, and 28% of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin C, an immune-boosting antioxidant. They’re ideal for sandwiches and hamburgers because they’re easy to slice up. They have a moderate flavor and are juicy, making them ideal for canning or preparing sauce.
Roma Tomatoes
Roma tomatoes are the archetypal Italian plum tomato, with a tangy, garden-fresh flavor. This tomato is perfect for a tasty stew, sauce, or paste. Try roasting your Roma and adding it in a tomato pesto or a spicy bruschetta topping for an even more intense flavor. It’s the perfect tomato to try new things because it has many uses and a lovely flavor.
Heirloom Tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes have been passed down through the years, so get back to your culinary roots. Heirloom tomatoes are one of the greatest tomatoes to brighten up your cuisine because they come in various sizes and vibrant hues, and they’re also flavorful. These tomatoes are fantastic fresh with a sprinkle of olive oil and a pinch of salt, and they make a delicious grilled or roasted side dish. Heirlooms have something for everyone, whether you prefer sweet or acidic tomatoes.
See more of this: Green Tomato Veggies | Cherry Tomato Sauce with Spice | Tomato Jam | Tomato Sauce Guide | Bread with Tomato
Tomatoes on the Vine
These tomatoes are kept on the vine to soak up the nutrients from the plant until they are fully ripened, as their name suggests. A mature red vine tomato is a must-have in any tomato lover’s kitchen because of its sweet and juicy freshness. From making the best tomato soup you’ve ever had to adding a refreshing pop of flavor to sauces, jams, and salads, these tomatoes can handle it all. The choices with a tomato on the vine are endless: slice them, dice them, roast them, eat them raw.
Green Tomatoes
Green-colored fruit is produced by several tomato cultivars, including heirloom green zebra and Cherokee green. On the other hand, green tomatoes can refer to unripened red tomatoes plucked early for purposes such as breading, frying, or pickling.
Popular Tomato Varieties
Tomatoes come in a huge variety. For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular and versatile tomato varieties.
Green Beefsteak Tomatoes
Green tomatoes may not usually indicate that they are unripe. Green Beefsteaks have a distinct acidic and tangy flavor that blends well with other ingredients to create something exceptional. These tomatoes can be used in juicing, artisan sandwiches, salsas, dips, and cold or spicy sauces to add a unique twist. They may also be cooked into sweets and pies (believe us, they’re wonderful!) and are a great substitution for Granny Smith apples in any recipe that calls for them.
Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
Cherokee purple tomatoes, an heirloom beefsteak type with black meat and transparent skin, offer a distinguishing appearance. Slice them up for a summer salad because they’re thick, juicy, and best savored raw and fresh.
Brandywine Tomatoes
Brandywine tomatoes are a beefsteak tomato variety with huge, pink fruits and a powerful flavor. They’re one of the most popular heirloom tomato kinds, and they have some of the best flavors. These are best eaten raw, such as in a Caprese salad or classic bruschetta.
Cocktail Tomatoes
Cocktail tomatoes have a sweet and fruity aftertaste to their conventional tomato flavor, making them flexible for any meal or occasion.
Cocktail tomatoes are among the greatest tomatoes for making delicate sauces, grilling, or stuffing with your favorite meats and vegetables since they have flexible walls and a meaty texture.
Yellow Tomatoes
Yellow fruit is produced by several tomato types, both heirloom and hybrid. Yellow tomatoes are less acidic than red tomatoes and have a different nutritional profile: yellow tomatoes are high in folate but poor in vitamin C.
Pear Tomatoes
Pear tomatoes are a tiny, pear-shaped heritage type. They’re tasty and yellow in color, but they can also be red or orange.
Better Boy Tomatoes
Better Boy tomato has been around for over 50 years and holds the Guinness World Record for the largest number of fruit produced by a single plant. The fruit, which grows on an indeterminate plant, weighs around 12 ounces, and ripens in 72 days, is known for its exceptional flavor. Better Boy types should be stacked heavily in the garden because of their great output.
Black Krim Tomatoes
The Black Krim (also known as Black Crimea and Noire de Crimée) is an heirloom tomato native to the Crimean Peninsula’s Black Sea island of Krim. The plant is indeterminate and open-pollinated, bearing 8 ounces flattened globe fruits with green/brown shoulders that are dark reddish-purple to black.
Celebrity Tomatoes
Celebrity is a tomato hybrid that produces long fruit-bearing stems with 20 or more big, strong tomatoes. The fruits are about 8 ounces in weight and 4 inches in diameter. Plants need to be caged or staked. They bear fruit all year.
Early Girl Tomatoes
Because of its early ripening fruit, the Early Girl tomato is a popular choice among home gardeners. Early Girl is a tomato cultivar that grows indeterminately, meaning it produces flowers and fruit until frost or another external event kills it (contrast with a determinate cultivar, which would grow to a limited, predefined shape and be most productive for one large harvest before dying or tapering off with minimal new growth or fruit). As the plant grows taller, it will require support.
Fruit maturity varies between 50 and 62 days after they have been transplanted, depending on the source, which is appealing to producers in climates where the growing seasons are shorter. Early Girl thrives in hot, dry regions and can withstand temperatures as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The ripe tomato is roughly the size and form of a tennis ball, weighing 4 to 8 ounces and measuring about the same size as a tennis ball. The tomatoes are vibrant in color and have a pleasant taste.
4th of July Tomatoes
Tomato plants of the Fourth of July variety are a popular cultivar. This is the earliest non-cherry tomato variety in a typical climate, which could be ready by the Fourth of July.
Garden Peach Tomatoes
Garden Peach tomatoes are a tomato cultivar that originated in Peru and is known as Coconas in Peru. The tomato’s little, bright yellow fruit is shaped like a globe. It looks like a peach with its yellow color and fuzzy skin, which blushes with pink mottling when ripe. This cultivar also produces a large quantity of fruit. Iron and vitamin B5 are abundant in these tomatoes.
This peach-colored heirloom has a mildly sweet flavor. Fruits range in size from 2 to 4 ounces and are ideal for salads. The vines are abundant and easy to cultivate in a variety of soil conditions. Garden Peaches have delicate, fuzzy skin and take 65 days to mature on average. Containers are ideal for them.
Gardener’s Delight Tomatoes
These fruits are bright red, bite-size, and sweet, and flavorful. Throughout the summer, this old German heirloom produces clusters of 6 to 12 cherry tomatoes. It has an indefinite lifespan, is resistant to cracking, and is abundant. Performance, flavor, and adaptability have all been proven with these tops.
Great White Tomatoes
The Great White tomato is what they sound like. Creamy white globes that can weigh up to 2-pounds but average around a pound each.
Green Zebra Tomatoes
Green Zebra is a tomato with dark green and yellow stripes. When ripe, newer varieties appear reddish rather than yellow. It’s more tart than a typical tomato (characterized as “spicy” and “zingy”), and it’s an early cultivar. It can produce mealy fruits when compared to other tomato types, depending on the growing conditions.
Hanover Tomatoes
The Hanover Tomato is a cultivated tomato variety grown mostly in Hanover County, Virginia. While most Hanover Tomatoes that reach the market are enormous fruits, their size is determined more by the geographical setting they are grown—typically coastal soil rich in the sand. The nature of the mature plant is assumed to be influenced by the amount of water retained in this sort of soil.
Rebellion Tomatoes
Rebellion tomatoes have a beautiful ribbed shape and succulent, smooth skin. This unique kind is delicious and hefty, making it ideal for stuffing and baking with a Mediterranean or Middle Eastern filling.
For a dramatic salad, cut crosswise and toss with a zesty vinaigrette: each slice appears like a child’s flower design.
There’s no denying that tomatoes are the ideal ingredient to just about every cuisine, thanks to their numerous kinds and diverse flavor characteristics. Tomatoes are incredibly adaptable and can be grilled, roasted, sautéed, or eaten raw as a nutritious snack. Adding these antioxidant powerhouses to your meal can offer a much-needed blast of flavor, whether it’s a hearty Beefsteak or a little yet snappy cherry tomato.
With so many tomato varieties to pick from, you might be unsure which one to plant in your garden – but after reading through our list of the most popular tomato types, you won’t be.