The Easy Hack You Need To Slice A Dozen Cherry Tomatoes At Once

Fresh and juicy cherry tomatoes make an excellent addition to salads, pasta, and other delicious recipes. You can find the best tomatoes when they're in season between late spring and early fall. However, you can still enjoy some varieties at other times of the year, especially since opting for small tomatoes is the best way to get fresh tomatoes out of season. 

Cutting the tomatoes in half is a great way to release the delicious juice and make them easier to eat. While you can slice them one at a time for a small dish, if you're making something that requires a lot of tomatoes, it's tedious and time-consuming to halve them one by one. Fortunately, there is one easy tip that will make this process fly by. The fastest way to slice a dozen or more tomatoes simultaneously is to sandwich them between two lids and cut through the center. 

This is an easy hack that you can use when needing to prep a bunch of tomatoes in a flash instead of spending extra prep time slicing them individually. For this trick, you'll need two equal-sized lids or small plates and a sharp knife. All you have to do is place all the cherry tomatoes on top of one of the lids or plates. Then, set the second plate on top so the tomatoes are sandwiched between the two. Gently place your hand over the top to hold it in place. There should be a gap between the upper and bottom lid, where the tomatoes are visible. Slice through that gap to cut the tomatoes in half. Then, remove the lid and add the halved tomatoes to your recipe. 

This kitchen tip is adaptable because you don't need one specialized tool. The key is to sandwich the tomatoes between equally sized, flat surfaces. But you can use different tools depending on what's in your kitchen. Serving plates, takeout container lids, Tupperware lids, or two small cutting boards could all work perfectly. 

This kitchen trick is ideal for preparing fresh salads, classic pasta dishes, pizza, roasted tomatoes, sandwiches, avocado toast, or any other recipe requiring several sliced cherry tomatoes. But you don't have to limit the recipe trick to cherry tomatoes. You can also use it for grape tomatoes, which have some important differences from cherry tomatoes. Other tomato varieties, such as plum or Campari tomatoes, are also perfect candidates for this hack. 

Apart from tomatoes, you can use this culinary tip to slice other similarly sized foods. The next time you want sliced grapes, berries, or olives for a recipe, institute this flat-surface technique and slice away. If you find that the hack doesn't go as smoothly as you hoped, and your tomatoes turn out more butchered than sliced, it might be time to sharpen your knives.  As well, after slicing, don't forget the proper way to store sliced tomatoes and other veggies.