Congratulations, you have a good tomato harvest again, then you should definitely making tomato powder. Your family is already full, you have made preparations, there is no room in the pantry, and you are wondering what else you can do with the rest of the tomatoes. Don’t worry, I’ll house you a good idea.
Prepare tomato powder, it will be useful for you in your kitchen, when preparing various dishes. You just need to dilute it with warm water and VOIL, you have your own tomato paste. You can add your favorite seasoning and delicious spaghetti with your own tomato sauce for dinner tonight.
How to make tomato powder, you ask? Easy, take fresh tomatoes, dehydrate them in a dehydrator or oven, you can do this with the help of the sun, where the climate permits. And then grind the dehydrated tomatoes into powder.
Contents
Preparing Tomato Powder
So I already understood that you love to grow tomatoes, but when there are too many of them and you cannot eat right away, the question arises – What to do with fresh tomatoes? Fresh tomatoes are a perishable product, and when you run out of ideas with conservation, the question arises with the rest of the tomatoes. Making salsa and fresh tomato sauce is good, but it takes a lot of time and space.
Therefore, making tomato powder is a great way to keep all the health benefits of tomatoes in a much smaller space!
The cooking method in an oven
When baking tomatoes in an oven, set it to the lowest setting possible. Make use of your air-conditioning fan setting to speed up the drying process. There are people who prefer to leave the door ajar so water vapor can escape more easily, but it was not necessary in my case.
Method for dehydrating
Dehydrators typically come with instructions. Make sure you follow those. Use a low setting if your dehydrator has more than one. We recommend gently drying them.
Sun drying
A sunny, warm climate is ideal for making sun-dried tomatoes. Lay the tomato slices out in the sun on a screen or on a tray.
If you want to keep insects away as the tomatoes dry, cover the trays with mesh cloth. Once the sun has set each evening, you should bring them in as well.
It is possible to dehydrate tomatoes to the point where they are dry enough to be ground into a powder after sun-drying them.
Ingredients for making tomato powder
- 1 dehydrator – I use this one Excalibur 3948CDB
- Tomatoes – all varieties work
- Food processor, blender, or coffee grinder
- Container for your powder – mason jar, zip lock bag, FoodSaver bag
Step by step guide to making tomato powder
- Wash fresh tomatoes and cut them into 3/4 inch slices.
- Arrange the slices in one layer on the dehydrator trays, leaving some space between the slices
- Set the dehydrator to 125-135 hours for 12-15 hours. This may take a little longer, depending on the moisture content of your tomato variety and the model of your dehydrator or oven.
- When the tomatoes are ready they look shriveled and shrink significantly. This will signal to you that your tomatoes are ready.
- Your dehydrated tomatoes are now ready to be ground into tomato powder. To grind dehydrated tomatoes into tomato powder, you need a blender or food processor. Either way, depending on what you use to grind, try a few times to see what works best for you.
- “Grind” until you have a nice fine powder with now sizable pieces.
- Store your tomato powder in a mason jar (sealed with a FoodSaver for long-term storage), zip lock bag, or FoodSaver Bag. And keep it in a cool, dry place.
Where to use dried tomato powder
- Tomato paste: Use a 1 to 1 ratio of powder to warm water (1 teaspoon powder to 1 teaspoon warm water).
- Tomato sauce: Use a 1 to 3 ratio of powder to warm water (1 teaspoon powder to 3 teaspoons warm water).
- Tomato Soup: Use 1 tsp powder, 1 tsp warm water, and 2 tsp cream – so 1 to 1 to 2 ratio.
- Tomato Juice: 1 tsp powder and 1/2 cup water
- Other Uses: Use it in chili and stews as a thickener and flavoring agent. Add the tomato to the meatloaf. Use as a base for seasoning with meat.
- Scrambled eggs: Cook scrambled eggs for breakfast, add a teaspoon of dehydrated tomato powder and you get scrambled eggs and fried tomatoes; Tasty and satisfying.
- Breakfast sandwich: If you love having a cream cheese sandwich for breakfast in the morning, why not add a little tomato powder to the cheese to give the cheese an intense tomato flavor.
- Ground beef: Add tomato powder to the finished minced meat with your favorite spices or fresh herbs and your finished dish will get more tomato flavor.
- Pizza dough: Add tomato powder to the pizza dough, this will give your dough a fresh tomato flavor and a nice color. Or you can make a pizza sauce from tomato powder and spread it on a pizza base.
- Roasted vegetables: Wow, fried vegetables for dinner today, and you have a dried tomato, add to vegetables along with your favorite spices.
- Salad dressings: Make a salad dressing with dried tomato and other herbs. Experiment with herbs every time you get a new dressing, not only for salads, Spanish rice, but also different pasta sauces.