Vegetables

Tomato nutrition, before and after the heat.

1 medium tomato lands at 22 calories and brings 1.1 g of protein with it. Those numbers describe “Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average” in USDA FoodData Central. Its real contribution is vitamin C. The panel underneath takes any serving and any amount, and the vitamin and mineral table tracks what you pick.

By Alen Yaco · Updated 20 September 2026

Figures: USDA FoodData Central, records 170457, 170050, 333281. Calculated in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

How many calories are in tomato?

1 medium tomato supplies 22 calories, which scales to 18 per 100 g. Each serving listed underneath was weighed by USDA rather than estimated.

How much protein does tomato provide?

1 medium tomato provides 1.1 g of protein. Set beside the 50 g reference intake, that is 2 percent. Tomato carries almost no protein. It earns its place in a day through carbohydrate, not through protein.

Its energy is 9 percent fat, 75 percent carbohydrate and 17 percent protein, meaning it behaves as mostly a carbohydrate in a meal.

Does the method change tomato?

Each line compares 123 g of tomato, prepared a different way.

Buying, cooking and using tomato

This vine fruit comes as round beefsteaks, plum-shaped romas, or small cherries. You can buy them fresh, tinned, or as a concentrated paste. Choose fresh specimens that feel heavy for their size and have a fragrant, herbaceous smell near the stem. Avoid those with soft spots, wrinkled skin, or pale, yellowing shoulders.

Apply heat to break down the cell walls, which intensifies the natural sugars and thickens the juices. Long simmering coaxes out a deep savoury quality, while quick roasting blisters the skins. The most common error is keeping fresh tomatoes in the fridge. Cold temperatures destroy their texture and permanently dampen their flavour.

Eat them raw in salads with olive oil and fresh basil, a classic Italian combination. In Mexican cooking, charred tomatoes are crushed into spicy table salsas. They pair naturally with garlic, onions, oregano, and soft cheeses. Slice them thinly for sandwiches, or squeeze the seeds out before chopping for bruschetta toppings.

Tomato: the full nutrient profile

The figures worth noticing in 1 medium tomato are vitamin C at 19 percent of a day. The full list follows and tracks your selected portion.

Tomato against a daily budget

On a 2,000 calorie day, 1 medium tomato is 1 percent of the budget and 2 percent of the protein Daily Value. Whether that is a lot depends on your own numbers rather than on 2,000: the TDEE calculator gives you what you burn, and the macro calculator turns a target into grams.

Three ways to cook tomato

Written by the Calorie Counter Team. The nutrition under each one is not an estimate: every ingredient is matched to its USDA FoodData Central record and the totals are summed from those, then divided by the servings.

Dinner · British

Classic Tomato Soup

A smooth hot soup made from fresh tomatoes, onions and vegetable stock.

40 min · serves 2

154kcal

3.8gprotein

8.3gfat

19gcarbs

Ingredients

• 600g red tomatoes, chopped 600 g
• 100g yellow onion, diced 100 g
• 15g olive oil 15 g
• 10g garlic cloves, minced 10 g
• 250g vegetable stock 250 g
• 4g salt 4 g

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cook the onion and garlic for five minutes until soft.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock and salt to the pan.
4. Simmer the mixture on low heat for twenty minutes.
5. Blend the soup with a hand blender until smooth.

Built from 6 USDA ingredient records. A cooked dish never matches its raw sum exactly, but it stays close.

Lunch · Mediterranean

Tomato Salad with Red Onion

A cold dressed salad of sliced tomatoes and red onions.

10 min · serves 2

115kcal

2.1gprotein

7.9gfat

10gcarbs

Ingredients

• 400g red tomatoes, sliced 400 g
• 50g red onion, thinly sliced 50 g
• 15g extra virgin olive oil 15 g
• 10g red wine vinegar 10 g
• 3g salt 3 g
• 1g ground black pepper 1 g

Method

1. Arrange the sliced tomatoes and red onions on a flat plate.
2. Whisk the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and black pepper in a small bowl.
3. Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and onions.
4. Leave the salad to stand for five minutes before serving.

Built from 6 USDA ingredient records. A cooked dish never matches its raw sum exactly, but it stays close.

Breakfast · British

Roasted Tomatoes on Toast

Warm oven-roasted cherry tomatoes served on toasted white bread.

25 min · serves 2

213kcal

4.9gprotein

11gfat

26gcarbs

Ingredients

• 300g cherry tomatoes 300 g
• 10g olive oil 10 g
• 2g salt 2 g
• 80g white bread 80 g
• 10g butter 10 g

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Toss the cherry tomatoes with the olive oil and salt on a baking tray.
3. Roast the tomatoes for fifteen minutes until the skins split.
4. Toast the white bread slices and spread the butter over them.
5. Spoon the hot roasted tomatoes onto the buttered toast.

Built from 5 USDA ingredient records. A cooked dish never matches its raw sum exactly, but it stays close.

Calorie Counter Team, food critic

What a meal with tomato adds up to

To see how tomato adds up in a meal, here it is beside two ordinary companions, all three from USDA figures.

How tomato compares with similar foods

Same weight for every row, 100 g, so differences are not portion effects. The form column shows whether a row is raw, cooked or as sold.

Tomato: common questions

How many calories does 1 medium tomato have?

1 medium tomato is 22 calories. That comes from the USDA record “Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average” (FDC 170457), which is 18 calories per 100 g.

How much protein does tomato have?

1 medium tomato has 1.1 g of protein. By weight that is 0.9 g per 100 g, and the serving covers 2 percent of the Daily Value.

Does tomato fit a calorie deficit?

It can fit any calorie target; no single food decides the outcome. What matters here is that 1 medium tomato costs 22 calories and returns 1.1 g of protein, so 20 percent of its energy is protein — useful alongside a protein source rather than as one.

Is tomato high in carbs?

1 medium tomato contains 4.8 g of carbohydrate. Fibre makes up 1.5 g of that and sugar 3.2 g.

How do you easily remove tomato skins?

Cut a small cross on the bottom of the fruit, then plunge it into boiling water briefly before transferring to icy water. The skin will shrink and peel away easily from the flesh.

Why is my tomato sauce too acidic?

Underripe fruit contains high levels of acid. You can balance this sharpness by cooking the sauce slowly to caramelise the natural sugars, or by stirring in a tiny pinch of bicarbonate of soda to neutralise the excess acid.

Sources

• Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average — USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 170457
• Tomatoes, red, ripe, cooked — USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 170050
• Tomatoes, canned, red, ripe, diced — USDA FoodData Central, FDC ID 333281
• Daily Values for nutrition labelling, 21 CFR 101.9