Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Tomato Powder

I recently went to Emergency Essentials to purchase tomato powder.  I about died when I saw the price!  It was $19.99 for a can- on sale!  At Macey's it was $27.99 per can!  I decided that this year, I am going to make my own.  As soon as the garden is plentiful enough, I can use home grown tomatoes.  For now, I  used supermarket tomatoes that were on sale for a great price, so I tried it with them.  It worked great!  What can you use tomato powder for?  Mix it with a little water and you have tomato paste!  Want sauce? Add a bit more water.  It can also be used for pizza sauce (mix 2 parts water, some olive oil, herbs and a pinch of sugar), and spaghetti sauce.  It can also thicken soups, stews, chili, etc.  Throw some in your artisan bread (with rosemary, or basil and garlic... yummmmm...).  Tomato powder is a great thing for your everyday cooking, as well as an excellent food storage item.  It takes much less space to store than the canned products.  It tastes fantastic!  Beware, it can go hard quickly if improperly stored.  Keep it as airtight as possible! Just about any variety of tomato would work. Go for the ones with the most robust flavor.  I can't wait to make this with my own homegrown tomatoes!

Directions: 
  1. Select ripe tomatoes.  Wash and remove stem.  No need to peel.
  2. Cut in thicker slices (1/4-1/3").  If the slices are too thin, for some reason they do not blend up as well.
  3. Dehydrate until very crisp.  In my dehyrator it took about 12 hours (at 130 degrees).
  4. Let cool.  Check for crispness.  They must be completely dry!
  5. Put in blender, and blend away!!  For a chunkier end product (to use with salsa, soups, spaghetti sauce), leave chunks in the powder. For a smoother product, blend until a fine powder is achieved. 
  6. If possible, seal in mason jar with the food saver attachment. 
Note: To shorten the drying time, you can squeeze all the juice out of the tomatoes prior to drying.

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5 comments:

  1. Hi! I added this to my blog (I gave you lots of credit). Is that okay? If not I can take it off right away. My blog is: www.providentlivingisfun.blogspot.com. Let me know if that is a problem. I love using my tomato powder. My favorite thing is that it does not bulge or explode like cans and it takes up a lot less space.

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  2. Hi, I have just bought an Excalibur dehydrator and I love to dehydrate food. I do have a problem though and that is that not all food becomes brittle. Like tomatoes. They stay somewhat leathery.
    Does that mean that I am doing something wrong or do tomatoes stay leathery whatever you do? How do your tomatoes turn out to be, when dehydrated?

    My goal is not to eat them, but to store them for the long term, in a vacuumbag with oxygenabsorber.

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  3. Sorry it took so long to reply! It has been crazy with vacations etc! Anyway, YES, tomatoes can and will stay leathery- which is great- as long as all the moisture is out of them. They will still blend great for the powder. You will want to make absolutely sure that all the moisture is out to store long term, or they will go moldy. You may want to even store them in the freezer. If you put them in a bag, and any condensation appears, they are not dry enough. My really thin pieces of Roma got super hard, in fact they didn't blend as well as the thicker ones. My thicker ones were pliable, but not super moist. Enjoy your Excalibur! I love, love, love mine! It is going right now as I type with apricots.... yummy!

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  4. Thank you for your reply Katie. I hope you have had a nice vacation!

    I guess it is a matter of how thick the slices are then. Next time I will slice them a bit thinner, maybe they will get hard. It is not that I don't like them leathery, but I don't trust it because my lack of experience.

    Yesterday I dried frozen peas for long term storage. They turned out like little tiny rocks. Great!

    I really love it my food dehydrator and playing with it. The only thing that I miss on the dehydrator though, is an airfilter at the back, to keep dust out while sucking air in. I am planning to make a filter myself.

    Thanks again and greetings from the Netherlands (europe).

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  5. I use a Harvest Maid dehydrator and my tomatoes come out brittle every time. I keep some this way and powder some too. And there is no need for a dust filter with this model. Get them for about 60.00 dollars at Wal-Mart.

    I do a lot of canning, drying and preserving.
    If anyone wants to contact me, my email address is thelonewolf1964@hotmail.com

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