I’ve been making tomato powder this week from my garden tomatoes. We’ve had a great season of tomatoes from just two plants! I had hopes of canning some up but, frankly, I’m running out of pantry space. So I decided to use my surplus to make some tomato powder.
Never heard of tomato powder? Tomato powder is made from dehydrated tomatoes ground into a fine powder. It can be used to make all kinds of things by simply adding warm water.
Making Tomato Powder
If you love growing tomatoes then you know how quickly you can have TOO MANY tomatoes! I love canning whole tomatoes, salsa and sauce but it is a lot of work and takes up a lot of space. Making tomato powder is another fabulous way to preserve all that tomato goodness in a lot less space!
And it isn’t just great for home. Your tomato powder will travel well too – think spaghetti on your camping trip!
Making Tomato Powder – Ingredients
- 1 dehydrator – I use this one
- Tomatoes – all varieties work
- Food processor, blender or coffee grinder
- Container for your powder – mason jar, zip lock bag, FoodSaver bag
Making Tomato Powder – Step
- Wash your tomatoes and slice into 3/4 inch slices
- Arrange your slices on your dehydrator trays in single layers
- Set your dehydrator for 125 – 135 for 12 – 15 hours. It could take a little longer depending on humidity. They need to have very
little flexibility left when they are done. - Once they are completely dehydrated remove them from the racks.
- Depending on what you are using to grind them down into the powder, try a few at a time to see how much it can take. I used my food processor and it can pretty much handle all 4 of my racks at once.
- “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.
Making Tomato Powder – How to Use It
- 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…the uses are really endless.
I hope you find making tomato powder to be as useful and space saving as I do. How do you plan to use tomato powder?
BONUS!
Do you have some tomatoes that have starting taking a nose dive and they are too soft to cut? Puree them in your blender or food processor and use your fruit leather inserts in your dehydrator. Once the ring in fully dehydrated you can break them up and start the grind. No more wasting those awesome garden goodies!!!
Thank you for all the great info. It’s very helpful.
Oh my gosh! Who would have thunk? Tomato powder! ???
Angela Miller
Hi, I’m new to tomato powder and food preservation in general but I was wondering if you could do other veggies such as celery or carrots to add to it for a V8 type juice?
I haven’t tried it but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Hi, I do not have a dehydrator. Can one use a halogen oven or normal oven? With the electric crisis in Cape Town SA. I wonder if it is feasible to attempt the above. I have to curb my desire to experiment.
As long as you can get all the moisture out.
How long does the tomato powder last?
Should last a year or more if you keep it dry.
Good job
Thank you.
I used my Magic Mill dehydrator to dry and my Ninga Pro to grind. Started with 5 Lbs of tomatoes. Ended up with 1 cup of powder. Drying time took much longer than I thought it would and longer than I have seen for recipes on the net. Started drying a 135 for 12 hours, then 6 more, still pliable I raised the temp to 165 for 7 hours, then lowered it back to 135 for 6 more! Finally had dried tomatoes! I should state that I used a tomato slicer to slice them which gave me even 1/4 inch slices. Slicing thinner would probably reduce the time but I wanted all the slices to be the same. Turner them to powder in the Ninga and am storing in a mason jar. Can’t wait to start using. Cherry tomatoes and Roma’s are next!
Thank you for sharing your results!!! 🙂
I use a Cabela’s commercial dehydrator and set it at 160 degrees F for about 12 hours. The tomatoes were dry, but somewhat pliable, so I transferred them to a 200 degree F oven for about 10 minutes. That last step really crisped them up quickly! I wanted super fine powder, so I grind them in a coffee grinder to achieve that result. I did all of this last year in the fall and have been storing them in a 2-quart brown tint mason jar on the counter using food grade desiccant packets. So far, so good! I love this powder to add to about anything for a bit more intense tomato flavor.
I use a Cabela’s commercial dehydrator set at 160 degrees F or about 12 hours to dry my tomato slices. They came out dry, but still somewhat pliable, so I placed them in a 200 degree F oven for about 10 minutes. Really crisped the slices up! I wanted super fine powder, so I ground them in a coffee grinder. I did this last fall and have been storing the powder on the counter in a 2-quart brown tint mason jar with food grade desiccant packets. So far, so good. I love this powder to add to anything for a more intense tomato flavor.
I love the powder – it is so versatile!
You can even just dry the tomato skins you have removed from the tomatoes (example: when canning), dry them in a dehydrator & then grind them. No tomato waste. Well, I guess the stem😉
Great idea! Thanks Sharon!
I don’t know why I have never heard of this. It’s a wonderful way to stock up and save space. These days you never know if you are going to need to use this to fix a meal. All I can say is thanks a million!
I rarely can tomatoes because this takes up so much less space! Be sure to check out my other powdered vegetable ideas too!