Are you looking for more ways to use your tomato harvest? Love the flavor of sun-dried tomatoes, but not the price? It’s super easy to make dried tomatoes at home, without any fancy equipment! Read on to learn how to dry them using your oven.
This year, we grew some wonderful golden cherry tomatoes. I love cherry tomatoes, and these were deliciously sweet and juicy. The yield turned out to be larger than I had planned on, and we were getting several cups of tomatoes per week for a while.
What can you do with so many little tomatoes? Salads are great, but you can only use so many that way. I wanted to preserve them somehow, but I thought it would be a waste of time to boil and skin them all for tomato sauce.
Then I stumbled across a recipe that called for sun-dried tomatoes, and that got me thinking about other ways to dry tomatoes. (No way is the sun going to dry my tomatoes in Alaska in September.)
Why make dried tomatoes?
Drying them is a great way to preserve smaller tomatoes like cherry or plum varieties. You don’t have to worry about skins with this method, and the cherry tomatoes need only be cut in half before drying.
The end product is also versatile. You can crush dried tomatoes into a fine powder to add to soups or sauces, rehydrate them and use like canned tomatoes, or just add them to recipes the their dried state for concentrated tomato flavor.
I also like to eat them plain as a snack. Just a bit sweet and full of tomato-ey goodness, they’re kind of like a savory raisin. I believe my toddler thinks they are raisins, in fact.
It’s kind of surprising how much flavor is packed into these little tidbits. You bite into one, and your mouth is suddenly filled with tomato. I don’t think raisins or dried cranberries have quite the same effect.
At any rate, drying tomatoes is a great way to preserve tomatoes if you don’t have a large enough quantity to can, or the fruits are too small to make that method worth the work!
Method
If you live in a hot, dry climate, by all means try sun-drying your tomatoes! And if you have a dehydrator, that method also works well. (For a good dehydrator tutorial, try this one from Grow A Good Life.) But if you find yourself without either of those options, here’s how to dry your tomatoes in the oven.
First, wash your tomatoes and remove the stems. I like to use a colander so they can drip dry while I’m doing something else. They don’t need to be completely dry when you put them in the oven, but it’s a good idea to roll them on a towel or let them dry in a colander for a while. You don’t need extra moisture in the oven; after all, it’s supposed to be a sauna, not a steam bath!
Prepare your equipment
Set out some large flat baking pans. If they are made of aluminum, I recommend lining them with parchment paper. Tomatoes can react with aluminum.
I also recommend using pans with sides, not cookie sheets that are flat on three sides. The tomatoes tend to move around a bit–at least when I’m taking them out of the oven!
Set your oven to the lowest temperature setting. Hopefully this is below 200 degrees Fahrenheit. If 200 is the lowest temperature your oven allows you to set, see if there is a “warm” setting and use that.
The goal is to use enough heat to evaporate the water in the tomatoes, but not so much heat that they cook. I have had pretty good success with an oven temperature of 170 degrees, which is the lowest my oven goes.
Prepare the tomatoes
Now that your tomatoes have been sitting for a few minutes, they should be fairly dry and ready to go. If you’re working with cherry tomatoes, slice them in half and lay them, cut side up, on the baking sheets.
If you are using plum tomatoes or anything larger than cherries, you will need to slice them more than once. The thinner the slices, the faster they will dry in the oven; however, you don’t want them falling apart.
Use your judgment and find what works for you, but I would definitely recommend slicing them less than 1/2-inch thick. Otherwise, you will be waiting a long time!
You can put the tomatoes pretty close together on the baking sheets. They are going to shrink, not expand! (You might be surprised at how much they do shrink! This is a very effective way to preserve tomatoes if you don’t have a lot of storage space.)
Drying the tomatoes
When the sheets are ready, place them in the oven. Then walk away for an hour. I check on my tomatoes about once every hour during the drying process.
First, you will see the cut tops of the tomatoes start to dry out. When they are no longer sticky to the touch, after a couple hours of drying (based on my oven temperature of 170 degrees; your times may be different with a different temperature), the tomato slices are ready to be flipped over.
Turning them over allows for more even drying. I turned the cherry tomatoes over 2 or 3 times during the drying process, but larger tomato slices or a different oven temperature may affect the drying time.
When are they done?
After a few hours, the tomato slices will begin to look like raisins. To check to see if they are done, cut into a slice and see if there is any moisture left inside.
Alternatively, try to squish or bend the tomatoes. I dry mine to the point where they feel like old raisins–the ones you don’t really want to eat because they’re hard. They don’t snap when you bend them, but they definitely aren’t squishy.
Note: if you want to make tomato powder, be sure to dry the tomatoes until there is no moisture left inside of them.
You will need to keep checking on the tomatoes throughout the drying process. If the tomatoes were different sizes, the smaller ones will dry faster. They should be removed from the pans when they’re dry, so they don’t burn while you’re waiting for the larger pieces to dry completely.
The actual drying time will vary based on the size of your tomatoes and your oven temperature. My first batch took roughly 4-5 hours, but I did stop in the middle of that and let them sit overnight before finishing the drying process in the morning.
Storage and uses for dried tomatoes
You can store the dried tomatoes in freezer bags in the freezer, or in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. If you choose this method, use jars that hold about as many tomatoes as you will use at a time.
You don’t want to open and close the jars many times in a humid climate, as moisture in the jar can cause the tomatoes to mold. Packing them in oil solves this problem.
Dried tomatoes can be chopped and added to soups, stews, or sauces, where they will rehydrate in the liquid. Alternatively, you can rehydrate them in boiling water. Just cook them until they are soft and no longer chewy. This can take 20-30 minutes.
To make tomato powder, simply whirl your crisply dried tomatoes in a food processor. You can store this in jars at room temperature and use like a dry form of tomato paste. It’s surprisingly versatile!
That’s really all there is to it. Drying tomatoes is pretty simple, even if you don’t have hot summer sun or a dehydrator. It’s a great way to preserve your garden produce, so you can keep enjoying it all winter long!
For more tips on using your harvest, check out this article on cooking carrots.
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