Homemade Tomato Powder

I had never heard of tomato powder before, and didn’t have a clue what it was used for.  I have more tomatoes than we could ever eat, and I was running out of ideas, so Pinterest to the rescue !!

What you will need:

• Dehydrator, I have an Excalibur 3900.  I need a dehydrator that goes as high as 165 degree for making jerky, but for this, any dehydrator will do the job.
• Tomatoes, I used about 12 cups of sliced cherry and cocktail tomatoes, which made about 12 ounces of powder.

Cleaning and Dehydrating:

1. Remove the stems, rinse and dry your tomatoes.
2. Slice them into 1/2 inch slices, uniform is the key!!  You want them to dry the same.
3. Place the tomatoes on your dehydrator trays so they are not touching.
4. Dry them at 125 degrees for 6-8 hours, turning them over at around 4 hours.  Some of mine were dried at 6 hours and the rest at about 8 hours.  The bigger tomatoes dried quicker than the cherry tomatoes and the end slices, just take a peek from time to time.  Make sure they are completely dry and not sticky, or they won’t turn to powder.

Making Tomato Powder:

Use what you have, a food processor, high power blender (like a ninja), or what I used, my handy coffee grinder.  Every year I grind all of my dried herbs with my coffee grinder, I have tried my food processor and Ninja, but the end product was inconsistent.  My cheap little coffee grinder does an amazing job.  You can store this like you would any herb, I store mine in canning jars, the lids have a nice seal.

Wondering what to do with tomato powder?

I made it for the first time this week, so my knowledge is limited, but once you taste it your mind will be spinning with ideas.  It has this amazing flavor of sweetness and  is rich and packed with tomato, nothing I have ever tasted before.  Here is a list from Pinterest on uses:

• Paste: Use a 1 to 1 ratio of powder to warm water (1 teaspoon powder to 1 teaspoon warm water).
• 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 stew as a thickener and flavor addition.  Add a tomato kick to your meat loaf.  Use as the base for taco meat seasoning or ketchup on a burger.

Who knew tomato powder was a thing 🙂  This will be added to my annual schedule for sure !!

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