Green Tomato Jello Jams (Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, Pineapple, Black Cherry & Mango)
Though fall is beautiful and all, it's always such a sad, sad day for a gardener when you get that first frost warning, and know that no matter how much produce is still "on the vine", that it's time to pull up the plants.
And that's exactly what happened. It was time. Old Man Winter was knocking at the door a little early, and though my plants were LOADED, and even getting new vegetables and blooms!, it was time to pull them all up.
I ended up with an amazing 108 peppers!!! I couldn't believe it! I knew I had a lot of them, but 108???
I had even MORE green tomatoes!!! 30 pounds? 40 pounds?? I have no idea, but let me just say, that I had two plastic grocery bags full of them that each weighed a small TON. Romas, Patio and Beefsteak!!
So what to do with, literally, a ***GADZILLION*** green tomatoes?? Well, here is an easy way to use up a whole bunch with little fuss at all, and just 3 ingredients!
So let's get to it! We have a lot of batches to make! 😉
All that you basically need are just three simple ingredients, a food processor, and a pan. And of course, something to put your jam in! 😉
Just your cut-up tomatoes, sugar and a box of whatever flavor Jell-O you want, and you've got "Jello Jam"!! (*And no, I did not get confused and add flour into my jam! I keep my flour in my sugar jar, and my sugar in my flour jar because the lid screws on and keeps the spring ants out of it. 😉 ) Just in case you were wondering.... 😉
The first batch was chosen by my hubby, and he picked Cherry flavor from the basket of 7 boxes!
Place your tomatoes into the food processor and pulse until very finely chopped. Almost pureed, but not quite that far.
Measure out 2 ½ cups and place them into a large saucepan. Vigorously stir in 2 cups of sugar.
Bring this mixture to a FULL rolling boil, and boil hard for 10 minutes. (Stir this every now and then to make sure nothing is sticking and to scrape the sugar from the sides of the pan.)
Skim off the icky green foam, then just stir in your Jell-O until dissolved and ladle into a freezer container, refrigerator container or jar, or canning jar!
You can store this in the fridge, freeze, or process and can! I'm just storing them in the fridge. Well, all but one! 😉 I made TWO batches of Cherry and gave one to the neighbors! 🙂
This turns out super sweet, thick, very chunky, and tastes just like jam!
*Just make sure that you grind them up enough that you have some juice or there won't be enough liquid to dissolve the Jell-O and you'll end up with a hard, grainy mess. That has actually happened to me before.
So if when you're mixing in the Jell-O and it looks like it's super grainy and not wanting to mix in and completely dissolve, just add some VERY HOT water, about a ¼ cup, to help it along. 😀
I've also read, that you can add just a little lemon juice to this, too, to cut the sweetness just a bit.
This is so easy to make, and a great way to make jam that's fun, and very frugal! You'll never know that they are made from green tomatoes! And the flavors and colors turn out so pretty, that you could even give these jars as gifts!
So if you're stuck with last-of-the-season green tomatoes, too,
this old, stand-by recipe is for you!
Green Tomato Jello Jams (Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, Black Cherry, Pineapple & Mango)
Ingredients
Instructions
Okay that’s why mine was grainy and too thick at end. I thought maybe it was too much sugar. So I am going to try again now using your advice thank you
Can you use sugar free jello?
@Anita, LOL....I found my answer by reading more comments!
no one saying boiling time on here for sure for canning.
@julie a connors, 10 minute water bath
I made it with raspberry Jello and it came out perfect. Tried it today with grape and it did not gel. Any ideas why ???
I've made several batches this weekend but didn't hot water bath or pressure cook but it was almost boiling when I pur in jars lids were hot to and put rings on tight will they be ok
My jelly isn’t getting stiffened up. How long should it take?
MORE END OF SEASON GREEN TOMATOE IDEAS;
try a green tomato, bacon and lentil soup....yum!!!! tastes like split pea.
Also use instead of tomatillos in salsa, chili verde or hot sauce.
That's an inventive answer to an intreesting question
I am maniac amateur tomato grower (and eater) and made such jams many times before with great success. Raspberry and orange being on top of the list. As original Jell-O’s lack the wholeness of the flavor I always add real fruit at 10 – 15% of the volume of chopped tomatoes plus orange zest and lemon zest to taste and aroma. Also, just for fun I chop tomatoes to pieces resembling real fruit. Small grains for raspberry thinly sliced and then little chopped for orange, halves of smallest cherry tomatoes for cherry jam. Many were fooled that they are having real fruit jam and could not believe that what they tasted was over 80% green tomato. Try and enjoy.
You need to include how many jars each batch makes.
I do say. At the top of the printable recipe card my recipe says one pint (2 cups). Hope that helps.
Are you saying then, that 1 batch equals 1 pint jar? I ask because you have 2 1/2 cups of tomato puree which unless it reduces down, is more than a 1 pt. It is very important to know exactly how many pt. jars this recipe will make because I can them and will do at least 8 to 12 jars at a time.
How long in hot water bath? Thanks
I was wondering the same thing. I had read in another post a woman water bathed her jar for 10 min. & had no problem with the product-good texture. I hope someone responds to us. Good luck in your canning.
@Linda, I steam-canned mine for ten minutes. (Waterbath canning is the same ten minutes.) Before I jarred it up though, I added a tbsp of bottled lemon juice to bring up the acidity level to 4.5.
I'm going to try this today. As I am new to canning as well, if I can this it can be on the shelf w/ my other success recipes ??? '"JUST TO BE COMPLETELY CLEAR"...
Need to know the same thing
I have made this jam for over forty years and have never had a failure. No one knows that they are eating green tomatoes. I will be making more this coming week as I have oodles of green tomatoes.
I need to limit my sugar intake. Would this recipe work with Spenda or Truvia instead of the sugar?
Honestly, I have no idea. I wouldn't see why not, though. I would try making just one jar, and see how it does.
Use sugar free jello and Splenda and yes you can have your sugar free.
Use Stevia for the best replacement and best taste for sugar substitute. It is what we use and no one knows the difference.
Can i double triple or even quadruple this recipe? Without any issues ?
I've never done it that way, so I would say to proceed with caution if you do. I'm so sorry that I couldn't help you better. But always being honest.
i have doubled it before worked fine.
I have a basket of green tomatoes and can hardly wait to try this. Love your idea!!! Can I process the jam once it is cooked so it does not have to be stored in the fridge? If so any idea how long to process in a hot water bath???
I've always been to scared to can. So I wouldn't know if this would be safe or not. I'm sorry! I wish I was more help!
My Mom made this. Your jam is hot ...just put the jam in jars and you will hear the lids pop. It is safe to keep it in a cool cupboard along with your pickles.
i have made this jam several timess, i have froze it was fine. good luck
Today i tried this same recipe with several different fruits .. Pineapple, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries . In place of the tomato because there are no green tomato in michigan yet. it worked perfectly . I waterbath canned it . That also worked fine. I just thought i would share that in case anyone else wants to try . I used the very same recipe just different fruit. Oh blackberry with orange jello YUM.
Great idea, Tonya! Thanks for the tip!! So happy to hear that you're enjoying and having fun!
thank you Kelly
if you hot water bath, is it safe to leave on shelf and will it not get to grainey, sugarized like?
Hi there Kelly, Iam new to canning but i have always wanted to learn. Our mother canned but never took the time to show me. So that being said I figured i would start out easy and the jams / jelly seemed the easiest. I also wanted to start out a bit different though. I have only made dandelion jelly but it turned out more like a honey. Wonderful flavor though. Iam so excited to try some of these recipes because they are different . Thank you so much for the post. I would love to follow you to see more ( if i can figure out how to do that . ) Again Thank you.
Thank you, Tonya! I'm too scared to can, too! Afraid I'll kill somebody, lol!! So I just make things like this that you store in the refrigerator, or you can freeze. *Just make sure that your green tomatoes aren't rock hard and dry. There still has to be some juice to melt the jello so it doesn't end up grainy and hard as a brick when it sets up. It's super easy, though, so don't worry!! 🙂 Hope you enjoy and have fun! 🙂
I'm not easily impressed but you've done it with that posting.
Glad to see it works with other flavors! We just picked pounds and pounds of our green tomatoes before the frost and I've only been familiar with the raspberry jello flavor. We're excited to try more now. Which one is your favorite? Also, my recipe was a 3:2 ratio of tomatoes to sugar (as opposed to 2.5:2 in yours), and it works out really well, too.
Thank you for the tips, Rebecca! 🙂 Appreciated! We loved them all, actually, but both my hubby and the neighbors RAVED over the mango flavor!! 😀
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe; Wife of 40 years ( Mary Rose ) was ready to kick my butt 'til she tasted the rasberry (YUM) and it gave her a whole new View !!!!!
Oh, thank goodness!!! 😀 So happy that you all liked it, and can still sit down! 😉
I made it with raspberry Jello and it came out perfect. Tried it with Grape and it did not thicken. Any ideas why?
Genius! Thanks for sharing!
You're very welcome!!