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This Homemade Tomato Juice tastes similar to V8 but is SO much better! Serve as a refreshing drink, as an ingredient in recipes, or as a soup base!
Homemade Tomato Juice
We love growing tomatoes in our garden each summer for canning. If you love canning as much as we do, we hope you will enjoy this and all of our other easy canning recipes!
Homemade Tomato Juice is so rich, delicious, and filling! It tastes so much better than V8 Juice and probably a lot better for you since you know exactly what is in it. I am not even kidding, this stuff is like liquid gold at our house. Even the kids love drinking it! I like it best drinking it ice cold, but I save plenty to use in all sorts of recipes and as a base for many soups. If you’re not sure about making your own tomato juice, read on. It’s really quite simple and it tastes so much better than those store bought varieties.
Canning Tomato Juice
When canning tomato juice, follow the directions in the recipe card below, but make sure to leave about a half inch of air space at the top. Store it in a cool, dry place and you’ll be able to enjoy this juice for up to two years. If you are looking to make a LOT of juice (which I like to make at least 25 quarts at a time) you will want to save yourself some frustration by getting a Tomato Strainer. THIS is the EXACT one that I use. I also have the little attachments, seen here. This will save you lots of time having to press everything by hand through a colander. I have seen cheaper ones on Amazon and even one that attaches to a Kitchen Aid— I am sure all of them are great (I am really tempted by the Kitchen Aid one because you don’t have to manually turn the crank… if I cave and get it I will let you know). Anything that keeps you from having to do extra work is a winner in my book.
Is Drinking Tomato Juice Good For You?
According to the National Institute of Health food sources that are high in lycopene, such as tomatoes, have many potential health benefits. Lycopene may reduce the risk of certain cancers, help with cardiovascular disease, and get this… reduce the risk of SUNBURN. These are just a few of the potential health benefits from drinking tomato juice. Read more about the health benefits from the source at the National Institute of Health.
Reduced Sodium Tomato Juice:
Did you know that store-bough tomato juice can be VERY high in sodium? This causes the store-bought juice to lose some of it’s health benefits. By making tomato juice from scratch at home, you have full control over the amount of sodium that is added! Reduce the salt in your juice to your specifications in this recipe and enjoy your healthy drink!
More Canned Tomato Recipes
We end up with bushels of tomatoes from our garden each year and it seems they go bad before we can use them all. Here are some of our favorite ways to can tomatoes so we can enjoy them all year long. Try a few for yourself!
- Canned Salsa
- Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce
- How to Can Diced or Crushed Tomatoes
- Savory Canned Salsa Recipe
Recipes that Use Homemade Tomato Juice
Use this delicious homemade tomato juice as a base for so many rich recipes, like these:
- Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Sausage
- Cafe Zupas Tomato Basil Soup
- Sirloin Steak with Tomato Basil Sauce
- Mom’s Cheater Chili
Make It A Virgin Bloody Mary
Turn this tomato juice into a non-alcoholic Bloody Mary by simply adding a squeeze of fresh lemon and a few drops of hot sauce (such as Tabasco sauce). Serve with celery and/or pickles.
FAQs About This Recipe
When it comes to juicing tomatoes, it’s always a good idea to use nice, beefy, juicy varieties but you almost can’t go wrong with any kind. Some of our favorites are Jack’s Whoppers (these grow GREAT in our area do this is a favorite), Early Girl, Beefsteak, Better Boy, Celebrity, or Brandywine. Check your local nurseries to see what varieties grow best in your area.
If you are making it fresh and storing it in your refrigerator in an air-tight bottle or jar, tomato juice can last 2-3 days. If you decide to can your tomato juice, it can last 12-18 months after it has been canned. After the jar has been opened, it can last 2-3 days, refrigerated– same as if it were fresh.
Yes! And there are lots of health benefits in doing so including weight loss, better digestion, lower cholesterol, and healthier skin. Not to mention tomatoes are chock-full of antioxidants! The benefits far outweigh the downsides for most, but everyone is different so it’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor to see what works best for you.
In a study done by the Department of Nutrition in China, and published by the National Institute of Health, it was found that tomato juice supplementation significantly reduced body weight, body fat, waist circumference, and BMI in healthy women between the ages of 20-30. Pretty cool. Right?! Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3850026/
Homemade Tomato Juice
Video
Ingredients
- 23 pounds tomatoes 3 ¼ pounds per quart or 23 pounds per canner load of 7 quarts
- water approximately ¼ cup to 1 cup
Per Quart of Juice:
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion salt
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
Instructions
- Wash, core and remove blemishes from tomatoes.
- Cut into small sections.
- In a large stock pot, add tomatoes and very little water (at most 1 cup).
- Bring to a boil.
- Put through colander to remove seeds and skin (see above notes for tips).
- Discard seeds and skin.
- Return juice to the stock pot and bring to a boil again, adding salt, onion salt, and celery salt according to how many quarts of juice you have yielded.
- If canning, pour 2 tablespoons lemon juice into sterilized quart-sized jars. Add tomato juice leaving about 1/2" air space at the top.
- Discard seeds, and skin.
Nutrition Information
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Does the lemon juice alter the flavor?
No, it doesn’t alter the flavor, it just balances the pH for canning!