When should tomatoes be peeled?

Denise LandisFounder & Editor in Chief of The Cook's Cook

Fresh diced tomatoes on a wooden cutting board.

Tomatoes freshly chopped on a wooden board.

Tomatoes typically don’t need to be peeled if you are going to eat them raw, but cooked tomato skins tend to peel and curl into hard, even spiky, spirals. So you’ll want to peel tomatoes before using them in recipes like tomato sauce, soup, salsa, or in a dish with a smooth texture. Even in cooked purees, you might wish to use peeled tomatoes to achieve the silkiest possible consistency. Level-up a salad or stir-fry by peeling tomatoes before adding them to your recipe.

Denise LandisFounder & Editor in Chief of The Cook's Cook

Denise Landis tested recipes and wrote for the New York Times for 25 years and has tested and edited numerous cookbooks. She founded The Cook's Cook in 2014 with a desire to bring together the worlds of professional chefs and food writers and enhtusiastic home cooks at all levels.

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