Did you know you can easily make sun-dried tomatoes? Yes, you heard us right, you can easily make them yourself. You might be thinking that they have to sit out in the sun for days to dry but we have come up with a much easier solution. You can achieve the same drying results using a food dehydrator. By using a dehydrator you also have more control over the drying conditions of your tomatoes. In addition, it is really quite convenient to add them to your dehydrator and forget them right from the comfort of your kitchen.
Here in Oregon our tomatoes are becoming ripe in waves. We go into our garden about every other day and pick a couple bowls of tomatoes. We have many different varieties of tomatoes growing both large, medium and small types of tomatoes. We then process or eat them as we harvest them. Some of the larger tomatoes are being roasted or processed for salsa or tomato sauce. Some of the smaller tomatoes are being eaten fresh or used in recipes. Nevertheless, we still are harvesting more tomatoes than we can eat.
Therefore we wanted to come up with another idea of how we could preserve our tomatoes and came up with this dehydrating method. We thought we could dehydrate them and cover them with olive oil just like you would sundried tomatoes. In addition, this allowed us to have one more method of preserving the tomatoes we had grown without them going to waste.
This recipe really couldn’t be much simpler. You cut up tomatoes to toss them into a salad but instead you put them in your dehydrator. You then dehydrate them until they are a leathery texture, transfer them to a jar and cover them with oil.
Copycat Sundried Tomatoes
Grape, Cherry, Pear or other small tomatoes
Olive oil
Minced garlic
Dried basil
Directions:
Cut tomatoes in half, lengthwise. Dehydrate tomatoes for 12-15 hours at 130 degrees. Transfer tomatoes to a jar. Cover with olive oil. Add garlic, basil or any other spices to your preference.
Below you will find a link below to the food dehydrator we use. It is an inexpensive model but it works well for our use. We also like how it is rectangular in shape making it easier to store.
The following is an affiliate link which means we make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
By preserving tomatoes in this manner, you will have tomatoes readily available all year long. Whenever you need sun-dried tomatoes to add to salads or use as a topping on pizza or bread, you can use these dried tomatoes. You could add peppers if you want these tomatoes to be spicy. You could also add other spices depending on how you plan to use these tomatoes. We chose to simply season them with garlic and basil as we thought we would be able to use them in a variety of recipes.
If you love sun-dried tomatoes but never had the means to make them yourself, now you can. Even if you don’t have a dehydrator, you can also dry them in the oven on a very low temperature. Be sure to try this recipe for yourself and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you and whether you made any changes or additions to this recipe. Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for stopping by and visiting Sunup to Sundown! We’ll be back soon with another recipe or update regarding our garden or our journey to becoming more self-reliant.
