Dehydrating Tomatoes

Dehydrating Tomatoes...this couldn't be easier!

We have been getting so many tomatoes (which is starting to taper off a bit with all this 100+ degree temps) and last week I had 16 lbs of tomatoes that I had to do something with right away so I sliced them up and placed them out on some dehydrating screens to make some sun dried tomatoes! (with the large tomatoes I sliced them about 1/4"+ thick and with Cherry tomatoes I cut them in half, leaving some of the smaller cherry tomatoes whole).

I sprinkled a little herbs and spices over the top of each tomato. And added some salt to help draw out the moisture...but just a tiny bit of salt or else the dehydrated tomatoes would be overwhelmingly salty.

Since the temperature was 105 degrees that day I thought I might as well set them outside! I placed them on our back porch patio and put some extra screening over the top of them (to keep away the anxious flies). I left them outside as long as it was hot and sunny and then brought them inside to the oven to finish them off.

I put my oven as low as it would go which was 170 and put a thermometer in on the top tray to make sure the temperature didn't rise too high.

I ended up with a variety of sizes, from tiny tomatoes the size of grapes to large palm sized rings and they all turned out excellent!!

I was going to store them in the cabinet, but put them in a freezer bag and tossed them in the freezer because we had extra space. The 16 lbs of tomatoes ended up being a little less than 1 pound after they were all dehydrated. I really look forward to using these this winter for sauces, casseroles and soups!!