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Delicious Dried Tomatoes - How to Make Your Own

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Dry Your Tomato Harvest to Enjoy Gourmet Dried Tomatoes All Winter Long

I love dried tomatoes, but I don't like the high price at the market so I figured out how to make gourmet dried tomatoes at home using my oven. If you have a bumper crop of tomatoes in your garden, you can make your own dried tomatoes and enjoy delicious gourmet eating all winter long. Dried organic tomatoes are tasty additions to fresh pasta, sauces, sandwiches, salads, stir fry dishes. You can can also enjoy dried tomatoes as a chewy tangy-sweet and tasty healthful snack.

Fresh tomatoes from the garden are almost everyone's favorite summer produce. Dried tomatoes are, for me, even better - their concentrated tomato goodness makes waiting for next season's fresh crop easier during the long winter months.

You can make dried tomatoes in a commercial dehydrator or you can dry them in your oven or in the sun. This lens explains how I make organic dried tomatoes at home using my oven and ordinary kitchen equipment

Contents at a Glance

Tomatoes in a Raised Bed Planter
Easy Oven-Dried Tomatoes
Tomatoes - Grow Your Own Plants
The Best Tomatoes for Drying are Firm Ri...
Organic Tomato Planting Kits
What You Need to Dry Tomatoes

You only need a space 3 ft x 8 feet to grow up to 6 tomato plants

Roma tomato plants in raised bed garden, ready to grow and make dried tomatoes

Our home in Vermont has never had any garden spaces so we're working on creating veggie and flower beds. We need to clear trees and brush, then build the soil with organic matter before we can plant our favorite perennials,herbs, native plants and a big vegetable garden. This year we built a raised bed kitchen garden to grow a few vegetables.

This photo above shows how the raised bed looked just after planting with 3 tomato plants 2 pepper plants and 1 each of squash and cucumbers on Memorial Day, 2011

Easy Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Step by step recipe for making your own gourmet dried tomatoes at home

The basic recipe for making your own dried tomatoes is easy. The most difficult part of the entire process is having patience.

It can take up to 12 hours to dry each batch of tomatoes in a regular oven, but the wait is worth every minute of oven-watching. If you have a food dehydrator you may save time but you can't dry as many tomatoes in one batch.

Tomatoes - Grow Your Own Plants

Plant Organic and Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Choose organic and heirloom tomato varieties with firm flesh and low moisture for best results.

The Best Tomatoes for Drying are Firm Ripe Plum Tomatoes

Plum tomatoes have very little watery juice, so they are the best choice for making dried tomatoes.Plum tomatoes (sometimes called paste tomatoes) have thick fleshy skins and and plenty of sweet pulp with small seeds. I don't remove the seeds from my tomatoes before drying although some recipes recommend this. I like to preserve every delicious bit of nutrition from my home grown tomatoes when I make dried tomatoes.

A whole oven's worth of dried tomatoes takes about 4 dozen medium to large ripe plum tomatoes. You can dry fewer tomatoes of course, but I like to maximize my oven energy for every batch.

Organic Tomato Planting Kits

Start Seeds Early Indoors

Start your plants indoors before summer planting dates. These kits will help you get started with organic tomato plants at home.

What You Need to Dry Tomatoes

A Whole Oven Batch of Dried Tomatoes

48 Firm, Ripe Plum Tomatoes, washed
Cooling racks (I use cake/cookie racks) with narrow tines that won't let tomatoes slip through
Sea salt, or Kosher salt
12 hours of your time - good food takes time

Note: Larger, juicier tomatoes may require more than 12 hours to dry. If so, simply extend the cooking time until your tomatoes are dried to leathery consistency.

Rodale's Guide to Food Preservation

How to can, dry, preserve and freeze foods at home

Features all your grandmother's techniques for putting food by, plus updated methodis using the microwave, the freezer and more.

Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow

by: Rodale Food Center

Amazon Price: $6.57 (as of 02/15/2012)
List Price: $18.99
Used Price: $6.96

Average 5-star rating by customers who purchased this book. Reviewers praise it's simplicity and comprehensive coverage "from soup to nuts".

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

How to Dry Tomatoes in Your Home Oven

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Arrange oven racks to allow air flow top and bottom. I use 4 cooling racks, 2 on each oven rack.
Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise and arrange skin side down on the cooling racks side by side, not touching. I arrange mine crosswise to the wires on the cooling racks so they won't slip through between the wires as they dry and shrink.
Sprinkle lightly with sea salt or Kosher salt.
Arrange tomato-filled racks on oven racks, and start timing.
After 2 hours, start checking tomatoes for dryness. Remove tomatoes as they dry.
Cool on paper plates or towels, then transfer to storage containers.

Tomato Drying Tips

Don't dry tomatoes until they turn crisp, and don't expect them to turn brown.

Tomatoes should be flexible, leathery-dry and not wet when they're done drying.

How Long to Dry the Tomatoes

How to tell when the tomatoes are "done"

Drying tomatoes takes time, but you don't need to stand over the stove or keep close watch for hours. They'll dry slowly and won't even need to be checked for dryness for a couple hours after you begin a batch.

I like to dry tomatoes on a not too hot late summer or early fall day when I am home all day long. It can take up to 12 hours to dry a larger, juicier tomato. Smaller, meatier tomatoes may dry in as few as 9 hours.

Tomatoes should be flexible, leathery-dry and not wet when they're done drying. They'll be supple but won't feel "squishy" to the touch.

Tomatoes shrink in size and get slightly darker as they dry, much like the way grapes do when they become raisins; the pulp will feel firm but flexible when they're done.

Food Saver Storage System

FoodSaver V2840 Advanced Design Vacuum Food Sealer, White/Black

Amazon Price: $129.99 (as of 02/15/2012)
List Price: $169.99

Vacuums, seals, and shuts off automatically - 2 vacuum speeds
CrushFree Instant Seal; extra-wide nonstick sealing strip
Space-saving design
Stainless-steel lid; dishwasher-safe antibacterial drip tray

Usually ships in 4-5 business days

Storing Oven Dried Tomatoes

Dried Tomatoes Will Keep Fresh for Months

Store dried, cooled tomatoes in plastic bags, clean jars or other air-tight containers.

I like to store dry tomatoes in the refrigerator in plastic bags to ensure longer shelf life and to preserve color, but you should be able to keep well-dried tomatoes in any dust-proof container at room temperature for several months.

Food Dehydrator - Jerky Maker

Excalibur 9 Tray Dehydrator - ED 2900 Dehydrater - Jerky Maker Food Dehydrator Excaliber

Amazon Price: $179.94 (as of 02/15/2012)
List Price: $345.95
Used Price:

Usually ships in 2-3 business days

Tomato Recipes Plexo - Build a Tomato Recipe Cookbook

All tomato recipe links and lenses welcome to add to this list

Fresh tomatoes from my organic vegetable garden

Here's a photograph of my tomato harvest before all this organic goodness became oven dried tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Add your favorite tomato recipe link, or vote for the best tomato recipe in this plexo list.

All suggested links are reviewed. Spam links will never appear here ... all tomato recipes, tomato sauce recipes OR dried tomato recipes welcome!

Delicious Dried Tomatoes - How to Make Your Own

Dry Your Tomato Harvest to Enjoy Gourmet Dried Tomatoes All Winter Long

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Tomatoes in a Raised Bed Planter

You only need a space 3 ft x 8 feet to grow up to 6 tomato plants

Easy Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Step by step recipe for making your own gourmet dried tomatoes at home

Tomatoes - Grow Your Own Plants

Plant Organic and Heirloom Tomato Seeds

The Best Tomatoes for Drying are Firm Ripe Plum Tomatoes

Organic Tomato Planting Kits

Start Seeds Early Indoors

What You Need to Dry Tomatoes

A Whole Oven Batch of Dried Tomatoes

Rodale's Guide to Food Preservation

How to can, dry, preserve and freeze foods at home

How to Dry Tomatoes in Your Home Oven

Tomato Drying Tips

How Long to Dry the Tomatoes

How to tell when the tomatoes are "done"

Food Saver Storage System

Storing Oven Dried Tomatoes

Dried Tomatoes Will Keep Fresh for Months

Food Dehydrator - Jerky Maker

Tomato Recipes Plexo - Build a Tomato Recipe Cookbook

All tomato recipe links and lenses welcome to add to this list

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Small Batch Home Food Dryer

Tomato Cooking Features on the Blog Circuit

The BIG Squidoo Tomato Lens List

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How to Make Dried Tomatoes - Index

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