Español
Conserve your tomatoes in a way that saves space by making a super versatile tomato powder. Learn how to make tomato powder, and how to use it.
The other day I shared with you how to make an easy tomato paste as a great way to conserve tomatoes from your garden. Today, I’ll show you another great way to conserve tomatoes, probably my favorite way, without needing to freeze them or can them. I love dehydrating tomatoes and either serving them as is over salads, or grinding them into a powder that can be used in soups, stews, chilis, or as a great topping for nuts and homemade tortilla chips.(I’ll be sharing my recipe for paleo Doritos-like chips soon!)
Making them is as easy as slicing the tomatoes and drying them somehow. You can make sun-dried tomatoes if you are in a warm, sunny, dry area, but here it tends to be pretty humid and cool by the time I’m looking to conserve my tomatoes. For me it’s easier to use a dehydrator instead. Even if you do sun dry your tomatoes, you may need to throw them into the dehydrator for a little while to make sure they are really dry enough to be ground into a powder.
How to make tomato powder and dehydrated tomatoes
How to Make Tomato Powder & Dehydrated Tomatoes
Makes around 8 ounces
Instructions
- Rinse the tomatoes well and remove the stems.
- Slice the tomatoes thinly and place the tomato slices on baking sheets or dehydrator trays, spreading the tomatoes out so that they are not touching or on top of each other.
- If using an oven, bake the tomatoes at the lowest temperature, using the oven fan if you have one. If using a dehydrator, dry on a low setting. either way, continue to dry the tomatoes until they are dry and brittle. You want the tomatoes to be brittle because that's a good sign that you have thoroughly removed the moisture from the tomatoes. If they are still flexible, they likely have a tiny bit of moisture still. It's a good idea to flip the tomatoes partway through the process, especially if using the oven.
- Once the tomatoes are completely dry, you can leave them as is, storing them in an airtight container or in a jar with olive oil (see instructions below). You my want to first slice them into strips for using on salads.
- If you want to make tomato powder, you will want to grind the tomatoes into a powder using a blender or food processor. I find it easier to first cut the tomato slices into smaller pieces and then grind them into a powder in the blender. If the powder isn't fine enough, you can switch to a coffee grinder to finish grinding the powder.
How to store dried tomatoes
Store dried tomato slices in an airtight container, preferably one without a lot of extra airspace, in the fridge. If you store them in plastic bags, try to remove as much air as possible before sealing them. You can store the dried tomatoes at room temperature, if needed, but it’s a good idea to keep them in the fridge to help keep mold forming on them in case you haven’t thoroughly dehydrated them. If you should see mold developing, you’ll want to toss them.
You can also choose to store dried tomato slices or strips in olive oil in the fridge, but they won’t keep as long as dried tomatoes without oil. To help bring out the acidic flavor of the tomatoes, dip them into vinegar before placing them into the oil. I like using dried tomatoes stored in oil for topping salads or working into spreads like hummus.
How to store tomato powder
Tomatoes take up a lot of room because of their water content, but tomato powder doesn’t take up very much room at all. If you store it in in an airtight container in the fridge, it is said to last indefinitely. That is, of course, if you did a good job of dehydrating the tomatoes well from the beginning, which is also important for easy grinding into a powder.
How to use tomato powder
Tomato powder is incredibly useful to have around because of its versatility. Not only is tomato powder great for seasoning my homemade flaxseed tortilla chips, adding to soups, stews, ground beef for tacos, etc., but it can also be mixed with a bit of water for an instant tomato sauce, tomato paste or tomato soup! Add it to cream cheese to make a tasty spread. I guess you can add it to just about anything to add a healthy flavor kick.
How to make tomato sauce from tomato powder
Depending upon how thick you want the final sauce to be, you will want to add somewhere around 1 part of water to 1 part tomato powder. For more of a tomato paste, you will want to use a little less water, or begin with a 1:1 ratio and later simmer it down to the desired consistency. For a thinner sauce for something like enchiladas, you will want to add more water. Simmer the powder with the water while stirring to fully dissolve the powder and thicken the sauce.
Do you love tomato powder as much as I do?
I’d love to hear how you use it!
DIY Natural Fabric Softeners
»
Jen
I dehydrated my tomatoes last year. I just sliced and dried. Unfortunately the powder has a very bitter taste and I can’t use it. Is there any way to take the bitterness out of it? I read somewhere to use baking soda with it when cooking? Any ideas? Did I do something wrong? I used a Presto dehydrator that only has 1 setting. You plug it in and it turns on. You unplug it and it turns off.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Jen,
I’m sorry to hear that happened. I’ve never had it happen, but from what I’ve read, it could be from the skin and seeds of some tomatoes. Some people actually make the powder only using the skin that they save from other recipes and are very happy with the obtained powder. So, it may depend a lot on the type of tomatoes used. Another issue I read about is a reaction of aluminum with tomato. I’m not familiar with your dehydrator, but if it were to have aluminum trays, that may be causing the problem.
I’m not sure about the baking soda. You’d have to give it a try to see what happens. I’ve read that using a bit of sweetness (from sugar, honey, etc.) can also offset any bitterness in tomato sauces, so maybe it would work here too.
Good luck with it! I hope you can at least salvage it for some uses.
Jeffrey L. Robbins
I first found powered tomatoes at a farmers market in Russia during a trip. I brought some home and used it wisely. It is the think to sprinkle on top of store bought tomatoes out of season to add home grown flavor.
My only problem was that they tend to absorb moisture and start to cake, even inside a spice jar. I am searching to find an ingredient I can add that will stop them from caking up. I’m hoping a manufacturer will let me know the safe ingredient to stop the caking. I can’t believe that the US has not found the wonderful powder which I add any time I want the taste of fresh home grown tomatoes.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Jeffrey!
Have you ever tried adding one of those food safe moisture absorber packages to it? You can sometimes find them in foods like nori sheets (the algae sheets for sushi) and other foods and save them for that sort of thing.
I’m not sure if there is some other trick to keeping it from caking. I’ll have to look into it. I’ve seen people put rice in salt to prevent it from clumping. Maybe something like that would also work here?
Joanie
I’ve read that using a piece of bread on top of the food that tends to cake up will solve the issue. The bread takes in the oxygen & the food below will be unaffected. When the bread gets really stiff, replace it with a new, soft slice. Hope this helps. I can’t wait to dry our tomatoes from our garden! Super idea. And yes, each different breed of tomato has a different flavor- low acid, more savory, high acid, a bit bitter, sweet, bright with slight acid.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Joanie,
Thanks for the tip! Maybe I’ll give it a shot. ?
Don
I used my Magic Mill dehydrator to dry and my Ninga Pro to grind. Started with 5 Lbs of tomatoes. Ended up with 1 cup of powder. Drying time took much longer than I thought it would and longer than I have seen for recipes on the net. Started drying a 135 for 12 hours, then 6 more, still pliable I raised the temp to 165 for 7 hours, then lowered it back to 135 for 6 more! Finally had dried tomatoes! I should state that I used a tomato slicer to slice them which gave me even 1/4 inch slices. Slicing thinner would probably reduce the time but I wanted all the slices to be the same. Turner them to powder in the Ninga and am storing in a mason jar. Can’t wait to start using. Cherry tomatoes and Roma’s are next!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Awesome, Don!
I’m so glad it worked out! 🙂
Yes, the drying can take a long time, especially if the slices are big, but I think it’s worth it!
Eve
I noticed that the calories are 20 is that for a tablespoon?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
If you go to the top of the recipe, there should be a place for each recipe that shows the serving size. In this case, it’s 1 tablespoon. (And the recipe makes around 32 tablespoons overall.)
Junnie
Do you have a tomato soup recipe using dehydrated tomato powder?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Junnie,
I’m sorry I don’t. I was going to look for one for you, but since I haven’t tried it myself to let you know if the recipe is actually good, it’s probably better I don’t recommend one I haven’t tried. 😉
Rashi
Hi Tracy,
You are amazing. I was searching fir tomato powder online, and I stumbled upon this place.
Wow, I am going to give it a try too. Thanks 🙂
Rashi
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Thanks, Rashi!
I’m happy I was able to help! 🙂
Patsy harris
Definitely gonna try the tomatoe basil sup sound delicious thank you Patsy Harris
Tamara Samulski
Hi Tracy,
For your more frugal followers (like me) i save the skins from the tomatoes that most toss when canning. I dehydrate the skins only into tomato powder. No waste!
Tracy Ariza
That’s a great idea, Tamara!
Brittany
Thanks for the idea Tamara! I just got finished canning 75lbs of tomatoes. I fed all the peels to my chickens so luckily those didn’t go to waste. I’m going to dehydrate them now instead.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Your poor chickens will be sad. 🙂
Ha! But, yes, she had a great idea. I’ll have to add the tip when I update this post!
(I feed mine to my hens too, BTW!)
Donna Hendry
I do make sure that my tomatoes are totally dry–and I find a coffee mill works best to get a nice fine powder.
But another thing I do is use the silica packs from medication bottles (since they are food grade) and put it in the jars of tomato powder…it helps keep it from caking–even thoroughly dry, they have a lot of sugar that can make it clump.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Donna,
That’s a great idea! Thanks!
Ashley
Can you tell me roughly how much powder you get from 8 lbs of tomatoes?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
It will really depend on the water content of the particular tomatoes used.
Looking at the final servings calculated on the recipe card, it appears that I ended up with around 2 cups in the end.
It’s been a while, so I’ll double-check this year when I make it again!
Cindy
Use tomato powder with dried basel for tomato basel soup at work just add hot water.
Tracy Ariza
Oooh- somehow missed this comment before. That sounds wonderful too! My son is a huge basil fan. He’s addicted to it.
Mari
I have tried to do this, but the powder quick sinks to the bottom of the container. Any ideas to help water snd powder stay mixed?