Tomatoes anchor Southern stews, smothered dishes, and summer gardens — cooking makes them more powerful.
The summer tomato garden was a fixture in Black Southern yards. Stewed tomatoes over white rice is a Low Country standard; smothered pork chops in tomato gravy is Deep South comfort.
Cooked tomatoes deliver significantly more bioavailable lycopene than raw. Black men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at 1.7x the rate of white men. Potassium supports blood pressure control.
Cook tomatoes with a fat (olive oil) to maximize lycopene absorption. Canned whole tomatoes are nutritionally equivalent to fresh and often richer in lycopene.
Free, no account needed to ask.