Delicious Dried Tomatoes - How to Make Your Own

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

If you have a bumper crop of tomatoes in your garden, you can preserve them by drying and enjoy delicious gourmet eating all winter long. Dried tomatoes are tasty additions to fresh pasta, sauces, sandwiches, salads, stir fry dishes and you can also enjoy them just the way they are, as a chewy tangy-sweet 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 and store oven dried tomatoes at home with ordinary kitchen equipment.

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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.

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.

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

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How to Dry Tomatoes in Your Home Oven 

  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Arrange oven racks to allow air flow top and bottom. I use 4 cooling racks, 2 on each oven rack.
  3. 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.
  4. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt or Kosher salt.
  5. Arrange tomato-filled racks on oven racks, and start timing.
  6. After 2 hours, start checking tomatoes for dryness. Remove tomatoes as they dry.
  7. 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

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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

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Small Batch Home Food Dryer 

Nesco American Harvest FD-1010 Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator

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Tomato Cooking Features on the Blog Circuit 

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Tomato Foodies Fan Club - Guestbook 

Have you ever dried tomatoes or other vegetables?

What's your favorite way to use dried tomatoes in recipes?

Do you like to eat leathery dried tomatoes as a snack, use them in pasta dishes, or salads, or do you add them to oils to make interesting condiments?

Do you season your tomatoes with herbs before drying?

Say hello, and please rate this lens with the stars at the top of the page if you have a minute.

If you have a favorite tomato recipe lens or link be sure to add it to the recipes plexo. If you have a lens on Squidoo about tomatoes that's NOT recipes, add it to the Tomato Plexo list!

anaturalphenomenon wrote...

AWESOME! Wow! I love dried tomatoes, and hadn't thought to do them myself. I LOVE that I can dry them right in my oven. Thank you so very much! 5* and favorited!

ReplyPosted July 19, 2009

sandyspider wrote...

Excellent lens. This will go good with my Garden Fresh Tomato Recipes lens. I will lensroll this. I never tried dried tomatoes. Good idea.

ReplyPosted July 09, 2009

getbackup wrote...

Sounds great. Thanks for sharing! You have very interesting lenses!!

ReplyPosted November 18, 2008

KimGiancaterino wrote...

I wish we had a bumper crop this year... We ate all of our tomatoes. Welcome to Culinary Favorites From A to Z.

ReplyPosted November 11, 2008

flighty02 wrote...

I have never tried this, I usually buy sun dried tomatoes but this seems so easy I will just have to try it out and save some money too! :) 5*****

ReplyPosted October 23, 2008

Video Recipe Guide: How to Dry Tomatoes 

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