Tomato Powder: One more thing to do with garden tomatoes.

It’s August and I am staring at a sea of tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, kale, beans and various squash from my garden. I’m running out of ways to use them. Since I haven’t tackled canning yet, I’ve decided to dehydrate them to make my own savory teas for the winter. (Check out my recipe for Vegetable Bouillon here.) Today I am focusing on tomatoes. I’ve made sauce, salsa and many a side dish with my tomatoes, but today I crack out dehydrator to make some tomato powder. It think it would be delicious sprinkled on eggs, pizza, in dips or or added to soups.

It’s fairly simple to make. First you wash and thoroughly dry your tomatoes.  Then you slice them about a quarter of an inch thick and place them in your dehydrator trays. My dehydrator has a few liners for the trays, so I used those. Set it to 135 degrees F and dehydrate until crispy. Gather the dried tomatoes and put in a freezer bag and freeze for 1 week. I read somewhere that this will kill any bug eggs that you might have missed. Not sure if this is really necessary but it was no problem to do. After a week in the freezer, throw your tomatoes in a blender or food processor and grind to a fine powder. Store in a jar in your cupboard or in the fridge if you want to keep it longer.  The shelf live is 6 months I believe and you’ll probably run out of it by then!