How to Dehydrate Tomatoes

We planted about 30 tomato plants this year and it seems they are trickling in this year instead of the huge buckets we usually get in a week. With these smaller yields, I have been trying different methods of preservation. Let me show you how to dehydrate tomatoes for be a great way to use up a lot of the tomatoes!

Dehydrating tomatoes is a wonderful way to preserve smaller yields and can be stored for a very long time when ground into a powder, which is what I’m doing.

We purchased a new dehydrator this year, and, I have been going crazy dehydrating everything I can!

The reason I prefer this method is:

1. You don’t have to peel the tomatoes or prepare them except for slicing!
2. It’s set and forget it!
3. The end product is shelf stable!

You can simply rehydrate the powder to make tomato paste or sauce. You can even sprinkle the powder on some dishes for added flavor!

The process of dehydrating tomatoes is very simple. You just slice them and place them on your dehydrator trays and set the dehydrator. I set the dehydrator to 135 degrees for 8 hours and check them after 6. It’s important to rotate the trays every 2-3 hours, moving the bottom to the top and so on.

I choose to use mostly Roma tomatoes because they have less juice and dehydrate better. But, I will use just whatever I have on hand. Today I had Roma’s and Yellow grape tomatoes.

If after 8 hours they are not fully dry (you are looking for them to be leathery and somewhat crisp), set the dehydrator for 2-3 more hours and check them again. The time is fully dependent on the moisture of the particular tomato you are using.

Once the tomatoes are fully dry, you can put them in a blender and blend into a fine powder that can be stored in a mason jar.

You can also just store the tomatoes in a jar to use in place of sun dried tomatoes.

I hope this will inspire you to start dehydrating as a method of preservation. I dehydrate bananas, herbs, tomatoes, potatoes, scrambled eggs, apples, and the list goes on and on!

See you soon!