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.
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
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow
Amazon Price: $12.91 (as of 01/02/2010)
List Price: $18.99
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Average 5-star rating by customers who purchased this book. Reviewers praise it's simplicity and comprehensive coverage "from soup to nuts".
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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
Amazon Price: (as of 01/03/2010)
List Price:
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
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: $188.45 (as of 01/03/2010)
List Price: $345.95
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Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Tomato Recipes Plexo - Build a Tomato Recipe Cookbook
All tomato recipe links and lenses welcome to add to this list
Add your favorite tomato recipe link, or vote for the best tomato recipe in this plexo list. Fresh tomato recipes, tomato sauce recipes OR dried tomato recipes welcome!
1
Dried Tomato Savory Sauce
Dried Tomato Sauce - similar to pesto, yummy!0 points
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How to make your own gourmet sauces. Learn how to more...0 points
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http://www.garlic-central.com/recipes/garlic-tomato-sauce.html
I absolutely love garlic and tomoato sauce, and th more...0 points
Small Batch Home Food Dryer
Nesco American Harvest FD-1010 Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator
Amazon Price: $139.72 (as of 01/03/2010)
List Price: $149.99
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Tomato Cooking Features on the Blog Circuit
- eat me, delicious: Sun-Dried Tomato Cottage Cheese Muffins
- Anyway, these sun dried tomato cottage cheese muffins were quite yummy and are good for a snack or for breakfast. These muffins really stuck to the muffin tin (as you can kind of see in the back of the photo) so I very highly recommend ...
- The White Haired Veg: Pasta with Squash and Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
- While pasta cooks, in a small electric chopper pulse together the sun-dried tomatoes (with a little of their oil) and garlic. In a microwave-proof bowl, thaw the squash in the microwave. When the squash is thawed, microwave another ...
- Husband Tested Recipes From Alice's Kitchen: Prosciutto, Fontina ...
- In a medium bowl, toss the spinach with the fontina, Parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Set 3 of the pita halves on a work space and top each with 2 slices of the prosciutto. Top each evenly with the spinach mixture and ...
- Couscous Stuffed Chicken Breast with Feta, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and ...
- Ingredients For the couscous: 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes 4 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes,
The BIG Squidoo Tomato Lens List
Please, only Squidoo tomato-related lenses
Add your favorite Squidoo tomato lens to this voting list - any and all tomato lenses welcome, EXCEPT recipe lenses (they have their own plexo elsewhere in this lens - add 'em to that list please). If your lens or one you love is about tomato information, how to grow tomatoes, tomato lore, tomato nutrition, tomato jokes, tomato stories ... anything at all about tomatoes except tomato recipes ... add them to this list. If you have favorite tomato recipe lenses and tomato recipe links, please add them to the Tomato Recipes plexo list!
1
Totally Terrific Tomato Recipes
Totally Terrific Tomato - Recipes and Growing Guid more...1 point
2
Healthy Tomato Recipes
How many different ways do we have of eating or co more...0 points
3
Salad Recipes
Different ways to enjoy your salad0 points
4
Garden Fresh Tomato Recipes
I love growing tomatoes. They are one of the easie more...0 points
I Love Organic Gardening
Lensmaster Pastiche has been a member since August 12 2007, has rated 1,505 lenses, favorited 538, and has created 127 lenses from scratch. Lee Hansen donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund and Room to Read. This member's top-ranked page is "Clip Art Borders & Frames". See all my lenses
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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!
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Reply
- norje norje Nov 15, 2009 @ 11:22 am
- Great lens! I've never dried tomatoes before, but I'm sure going to give it a shot next summer. Thanks for creating such an informative lens.
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Reply
- anaturalphenomenon anaturalphenomenon Jul 19, 2009 @ 11:20 am
- 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!
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Reply
- sandyspider sandyspider Jul 9, 2009 @ 7:10 pm
- Excellent lens. This will go good with my Garden Fresh Tomato Recipes lens. I will lensroll this. I never tried dried tomatoes. Good idea.
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Reply
- getbackup getbackup Nov 18, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
- Sounds great. Thanks for sharing! You have very interesting lenses!!
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Reply
- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Nov 11, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
- I wish we had a bumper crop this year... We ate all of our tomatoes. Welcome to Culinary Favorites From A to Z.
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Reply
- flighty02 flighty02 Oct 23, 2008 @ 3:14 am
- 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*****
How to Make Dried Tomatoes - Index
- Easy Oven-Dried Tomatoes
- The Best Tomatoes for Drying are Firm Ripe Plum Tomatoes
- What You Need to Dry Tomatoes
- Rodale's Guide to Food Preservation
- How to Dry Tomatoes in Your Home Oven
- Tomato Drying Tips
- How Long to Dry the Tomatoes
- Food Saver Storage System
- Storing Oven Dried Tomatoes
- Food Dehydrator - Jerky Maker
- Tomato Recipes Plexo - Build a Tomato Recipe Cookbook
- Small Batch Home Food Dryer
- Tomato Cooking Features on the Blog Circuit
- The BIG Squidoo Tomato Lens List
- I Love Organic Gardening
- Easy Garden Gourmet How-tos
- Tomato Foodies Fan Club - Guestbook
- Video Recipe Guide: How to Dry Tomatoes
Video Recipe Guide: How to Dry Tomatoes
by Pastiche
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