Tomato & Herb Bread – A Delicious Way to Use Up a Glut of Tomatoes

There comes a point every summer when you spend months patiently waiting for the first tomato to ripen… and then suddenly you have more tomatoes than you know what to do with!

If your greenhouse, garden or allotment is currently producing tomatoes faster than you can eat them, this simple Tomato & Herb Bread is a lovely way to use some of the glut.

One of the things I’m passionate about is making the most of seasonal produce and reducing food waste. A glut isn’t a problem – it’s an opportunity to get creative in the kitchen!

This savoury bread combines fresh tomatoes with garlic, herbs and British rapeseed oil to make a wonderfully tasty loaf. Even better, there’s no yeast, no kneading and no proving required, so it’s a really straightforward recipe to make.

It’s delicious served warm with butter, alongside a bowl of homemade soup, as part of a picnic or lunch, or simply sliced and enjoyed with a good piece of cheese.

Tomato & Herb Bread

Preparation time: Around 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Oven temperature: 200°C

Ingredients

• 400g bread flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 100ml rapeseed oil
• 200ml milk
• 1lb (approximately 450g) fresh tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp mixed dried herbs
• 1 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C and grease or line a loaf tin.
2. Roughly chop the tomatoes, then place them into a blender and whizz until blended and smooth. There’s no need to remove the skins or seeds.
3. Add the bread flour, baking powder, dried herbs and salt to a large mixing bowl and combine.
4. Crush or finely chop the garlic and add it to the flour mixture.
5. In a separate jug or bowl, lightly beat the egg before adding the rapeseed oil, milk and blended tomatoes. Mix together.
6. Pour the wet tomato mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until everything is thoroughly combined. This will create a thick, wet bread mixture rather than a traditional kneadable bread dough.
7. Spoon the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and level the top.
8. Bake in the preheated oven at 200°C for approximately 45 minutes, until golden on top and cooked through.
9. Allow the bread to cool slightly in the tin before turning it out onto a cooling rack.

Then simply slice, serve and enjoy!

Making the Most of the Harvest

Recipes like this are exactly why I love seasonal cooking. Tomatoes eaten at this time of year are full of flavour, but when lots ripen at once it can be difficult to know what to do with them all.

Rather than letting surplus produce go to waste, we can preserve it, freeze it, turn it into sauces and soups, share it with friends and neighbours – or bake it into something completely different like this bread.

It’s also a great recipe for experimenting with. If you have fresh herbs growing in the garden, try swapping the dried herbs for basil, oregano, thyme or rosemary. You could also add a little grated cheese to the top before baking for an extra savoury finish.

At The Countryside Kitchen ( the flagship project of No Fuss Meals for Busy Parents CIC), we love helping people understand where their food comes from and showing that cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients doesn’t need to be complicated.



And when the garden gives you a glut of tomatoes, there’s really only one thing to do…

Get cooking! 🍅🌿🍞