I just completed my seventh batch of dried tomatoes. Each batch of tomatoes fills all nine trays in my Excalibur Dehydrator. I get about 20-22 lbs into each batch. That’s the equivalent of about 7 quarts of canned diced tomatoes. It takes about 24 hrs for a load of tomatoes to dry, give or take 2-3 hours depending on the humidity. The best part? A dryer-load of tomatoes fits into one 1/2 gallon jar. Imagine that–7 quarts of tomatoes condensed into 2 quarts. How cool is that?
Drying tomatoes couldn’t be easier: you just wash all the tomatoes, cut out the core and any blemishes, slice about 1/4″ thick and arrange on trays. Tomatoes can touch but not overlap. About 18 hrs into the drying, I’ll check the tomatoes to how they’re doing. When they are leathery dry, I will take them out and turn over all the slices, then pop them back in for another 4-8 hours, or until they are crispy dry.
The bestest way to use dried tomatoes is to pop them into the blender and blend until they are turned into a powder. Then add water to reconstitute: a little water to create tomato paste or more water to make tomato sauce. So much easier than boiling tomatoes for hours to get a thick sauce or paste. Or, you can just crumble them up to add to soups or casseroles.
Yes, I dry them with the skins. Once they are ground into a powder, you’ll never know they weren’t peeled. Yes, I dry them with the seeds. The seeds also get ground into the powder and you really can’t taste any difference.
Do you really have to turn them over? Probably not. But humidity is such a problem here, especially in the fall and I don’t want any moisture at all, if I can help it. By turning them over, I’m ensuring that there are no spots that aren’t perfectly dry.
Often the humidity here will soften my dried foods. So to ensure they stay dry, I store them in vacuum-sealed containers like these canisters
Humidity is another reason I don’t grind them into powder and store in powdered form. After all, they would take up even less room if stored as powder instead of slices. But just one whiff of humidity and the powder turns into a brick.
If you are going to store your dried tomatoes in olive oil (a truly divine taste treat) leathery-dry is dry enough. You’ll also want to remove the seeds. Some recipes will tell you to remove the skins as well. Try them both with and without the skins to see what you prefer. Be sure to check this site out. It has one of the most thorough instructions on making dried tomatoes in oil. Be sure to click the link to the tutorial. It has lots of helpful information.
I often encourage you to use a variety of food preservation techniques–kind of the “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” principle. Tomatoes are one food that you can store with just about any method: drying, freezing and canning. You’ll get a nice variety of food and save yourself a lot of time and energy.
Here’s wishing you a year full of tasty tomatoes.
Thanks so Much for posting this!!! I am really interested making dried tomatoes in oil. Thanks for posting the tutorial! What is the equivalent of 1 can of store bought canned diced tomatoes to dried tomatoes? Half of a pint jar or less? I’m just guessing.
I ask, because, I have a meal-in-jar recipe that calls for 1 can of diced tomatoes. But if I can use dried and add that to the jar then the meal-in-jar really will be a complete MIJ. I’m not looking for exact just a guess. You have more experience and your guess is close enough for me.
Thanks again for posting!!
Here’s my math (thinking out loud): we’ll use 1 qt canned tomatoes = 1 can store tomatoes (a can is a bit smaller, but close enough, right?) In that 1/2 gallon jar is the equivalent of 7 qts, so if we say 1/8 of the jar = 1 can, that’d be roughly 2 C of the dried tomatoes. Is that right? Yes, of course! Because because most veggies double in volume, so 2 C dried = 4 C fresh veggies.
Hey! That’ll work. I’d love to see your MIJ ideas and recipes. I think adding dried veggies to MIJ is brilliant.
Thanks for the reply. 2 cups sounds about right. I make chili mac in a jar which calls for 1 can of diced tomatoes. But the whole idea behind MIJ is to have everything in the jar. Plus I have all of these beautiful tomatoes. In the Jar, everything is bagged separate so you can ‘mix-n-match’ and to avoid cross contamination. So if one thing goes bad the whole meal isn’t lost. Or if you would rather use canned toms for whatever reason you can. Same thing for the powdered milk; if you want to use regular milk you can. Maybe the fridg milk is going out of date and you would rather use it up. I label each bag with name and amount so you know how much to substitute. The recipes are from Chicken in the Road and Budget101. Thanks again for the reply! I love your posts!