Everything You Need to Know about Dehydrating Tomatoes

We did a little experiment this year and started 2 kinds of tomatoes as well as a package of cherry tomatoes, from seed, inside our mini greenhouse.  When the tomatoes were plant size you are suppose to pinch off the weaker ones and just plant the strong looking plants out into the garden.  Unfortunately, I just couldn't throw out a perfectly good tomato plant so we found whatever we could, to  plant them in, including Rubbermaid storage containers and any larger pot we could scrounge.  Now we are paying the price as we have a tomato jungle surrounding our 4 regular grow boxes with an explosion of both cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes growing profusely on every plant.  What do you do with all the tomatoes!!!  I am sure there are some of our readers with a similar dilemma so I thought we would post some very interesting solutions to handling the tomato harvest using our dehydrators, which are on sale now.

Tomato Leather:  Our last post talked about making all kinds of fruit leather but I saved the best for last.  Tomato leather is wonderful and can be used in a myriad of ways.  First of all, tomatoes do not have enough pectin to hold together as a dried puree, so a thickener must be added.  I like to put a level Tbsp. of our instant thickener Ultra Gel to every 2 cups of tomato puree that I have blended in the blender.  If you use small seedy tomatoes, then you need to strain them through a food mill or a Victorio Strainer.  You can sprinkle in some dried basil or rosemary or oregano or even garlic powder to give it some flavour.  Once the tomatoes are blended and the thickener added, cook them over medium heat stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and reaches the consistency of applesauce.  Cool and spread on a oiled or sprayed fruit leather sheet and dry at 110 to 135 degrees F. until leathery in texture.  To use the tomato leather I like to just drop it in a pot of spaghetti sauce to liven up the taste or even better it can used in a great Leather Bread.  Just flatten raw bread dough to about 1/2 inch thick, open a sheet of tomato leather to flat and dip it in water or tomato juice, then place it on top of the dough.  Sprinkle nuts, raisins, and cinnamon on the top of the leather and roll the dough up like a jelly roll, let it rise until double and bake as normal.  The bread is a real hit with the kids because of it's great colour and shape.

Tomato Leather Chips:  For a fun party snack, make chips out of a puree combination but instead of making one continuous sheet, spoon little round shapes onto the fruit leather sheets to make chips.  Again we combine 3 cups of the tomato puree, 2 Tbsp. of the Ultra Gel, 1 Tbsp. of shredded carrots, 1 tsp. of lemon juice in a medium saucepan on the stove.  Stir over medium heat until it thickens and then add 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. celery powder, 1/8 tsp. dried basil, and 1/8 tsp. dried oregano.  Dry these until leathery the same as the fruit leather and serve with a dip.  DELICIOUS!

Olive Oil and Dried Tomatoes: Drying  1/4"  tomato slices is as easy as slicing the tomato and placing it in the dehydrator on the mesh sheets and waiting 5 to 8 hours for them to dry.  All varieties, even green tomatoes, can be dried.  Meaty tomatoes like Roma and Celebrity are great for drying but always remember to choose firm tomatoes that have just turned red.  Do not dry too-ripe tomatoes because the darken.  Wash them of coarse and remove the seeds and peel them if you wish. (I DON"T) Slice them up and put them in the dehydrator on the mesh sheets until they are crisp at no higher than 135 degrees F.  The thicker you slice them the longer they will take to dry.  When packing the tomatoes with oil, used sterilized wide mouth quart jars and press down with a wooden spoon to squeeze out any air pockets.  Layer tomatoes, add the olive oil, and then more tomatoes.  Leave at least one inch of headspace at the top of each jar so the tomatoes remain submerged in the oil.  Store in the refrigerator.  The oil may congeal but will soften if the bottle is left out on the counter for a few minutes before using.  Serve on lettuce or spinach, add to cooked pasta, and use in cooking.  This olive oil has absorbed the tomato flavour as well and also tastes great.

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 Half-Dried Tomato Spread:  This is a amazing spread that can be served on crackers, on open lettuce leaves on top of cooked pasta or an accompaniment to meat.   We cut the fresh tomatoes into 1 inch chunks and dry them until the surface moisture has evaporated.  The skins will be wrinkly and the tomato chunks will have reduced to about 1/2 the size.  Generally this takes about 5 hours when drying at 135 degrees F.  Mix it with the remaining ingredients below and refrigerate until ready to use.

Tomato Garbonzo Salad :  As many of you know I love a salad so I thought I would include this wonderful salad which is a combination of half-dried and fully dried tomatoes.  You can do the same with half and fully dried peppers and mushrooms.  Artichokes make a nice addition to this salad as well. 

2 Tbsp. dried bell peppers, 1/4 "cubes                                            

Place the vinegars, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, oil and honey in a bowl.  Stir and let it rehydrate for at least 1 hours.  Longer marinating time allows dried vegetables more time to soften.  Add garbanzo beans, celery, olives, half dried tomatoes, onion, basil, rosemary, salt, and pepper.  Stir.  Serve on lettuce leaves.  Top with cheese.

I hope you will try some of these ideas to manage the influx of tomatoes at this time of year.  I think you will enjoy the end product using the dehydrators and save a lot of time and energy processing the canned versions.  Some of these ideas are from our great cookbook by Mary Bell , Food Dying with an Attitude.   Check out our online sale pricing on all our dehydrators.