Today a local blogging friend, Adrienne, is sharing her recipe for Herb Seasoned Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes. Let me know if you try these! Here's Adrienne…
Sun-dried tomatoes are one of my favorite foods.
You know, those little nuggets of sweet tomatoey goodness that add a punch of flavor to any dish!
They taste great, but they are super-expensive. (They typically cost about $20 per pound!)
Well, just after I started blogging, Kelly and I were talking about real food at a local meeting of the Weston A. Price Foundation. (I had been reading Kelly's blog for quite a while, but I finally got to meet her–up close and personal!)
We somehow got on the subject of dehydrators, and when I told Kelly that I made my own sun-dried tomatoes in my dehydrator, she said, “No way!” and kindly offered me a guest post.
So here I am, and here are instructions about how you too can make super easy sun-dried tomatoes at home and give some stretch to your real food dollars.
Now, there are a lot of techniques on the internet about making sun-dried tomatoes and storing them. And some of them are pretty time-consuming.
But, let's face it–we whole foodies need to get in and out of the kitchen fast, right?
This recipe will help you do just that. This is the way that I have been making my sun-dried tomatoes for years. There's a tad (just a “tad”) extra work involved over my Easiest Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes, but the olive oil and basil really enhances the tomato flavor nicely. This version passed all taste-tests in my family!
Seasoned Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients
- Approximately 2 lbs tomatoes equivalent of about 3 large; 5 cups total
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon dried basil or other herbs (or substitute 3-4 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped. See my post on The Easiest Way to Preserve Herbs)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt optional
Instructions
- Slice tomatoes uniformly and place in medium-sized bowl.
- Add oil, spice and salt and toss gently.
- Arrange in a single-layer on either a dehydrator tray (with non-stick sheets) or cookie sheets (if using an oven).
- Dry at the lowest possible temperature if using your oven. I dry mine at 125 degrees in my dehydrator to keep the enzymes intact.
- Your tomatoes are done when they are no longer moist but are still pliable.
- Store in an airtight container. I just use small plastic bags and secure them with these clips — one of my favorite kitchen tools! OR–
- Another great option for storage is to store your sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil with added herbs. You get extra moist tomatoes with more herbal flavor and tomato and herb-infused olive oil as well. Yum! Tomatoes in oil should be stored in the fridge until use. The oil will solidify, but you can use it as is or let it warm up at room temp or in a pan of warm water prior to use.
Notes:
- Seasonings above are variable by type and amount. Try garlic (have you seen the easiest way to peel garlic?), rosemary, or parsley. Whatever you like!
- Which variety of tomato should you use? They all work, but you'll get different results. I used smaller tomatoes like Romas in these photos. You can see photos of my drying big beautiful heirloom tomatoes on my other Sun-Dried Tomato post.
- If you don't have a dehydrator, just dry the tomatoes in your oven. But I really recommend getting a good dehydrator for several reasons and I know that Kelly likes them too :-)). One reason is that you can dry your foods at a low enough temp to keep the enzymes intact (most ovens don't go that low). Also, you can dry a lot more stuff at one time, especially if you get a large one. (For example, I can soak and dehydrate about 25 cups of nuts and seeds at once in mine!)
Need some other ideas for your abundant tomato harvest? Check out my plethora of tomato recipes and posts & some from Kelly:
- Try your homemade sun-dried tomatoes in my Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta.
I sure hope that after all this, you feel empowered to go and make some sun-dried tomatoes.
How about you? When will you give it a try?
Adrienne, of Whole New Mom, is a wife and homeschooling mother of two boys, one of whom has Asperger's Syndrome and life-threatening food allergies. In her past life she worked in the financial services industry and also taught in Japan. She has a passion to help others navigate the sea of information on the road to healthier lives, while trusting God for the results of their efforts. Additionally, she is a blossoming food freedom advocate. Because she loves to (and can’t afford not to :-)), she specializes in frugal living and simplifying special diets. You can also find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.
Jennifer says
Hello, I really want to try my hand at making my own sun-dried tomatoes this year, so I’m doing all my research BEFORE the tomatoes have even started to grow so I will hopefully understand and get all questions answered in advanced. I want to store some in a bag like you suggested first, but I also want to store some in oil with additional herbs also (like the ones you can buy at the stores). The only thing that is turning me away from that is the fact I have to store them in the refrigerator right away, is it possible to pressure cook/can or even just hot water bath the jars to seal them so they have a longer shelf life instead of having to be refridgerated? I thought that a jar or home-made sun dried tomatoes in oil would be GREAT christmas gifts for my family members but obviously I don’t want to have that many jars filling up my fridge till December! 🙂 Thank you for the post and I hope to get an answer soon.
KitchenKop says
Hopefully Adrienne sees this and replies, if not, email me and I’ll put it on Facebook to see if we can find out. 🙂
Kelly
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom says
I am not a skilled canner at all but this site appears to say it is NOT a good idea. So I wouldn’t :). https://nchfp.uga.edu/tips/summer/home_preserv_tomatoes.html
ButterYum says
PS – I love twixit clips. I had no idea they were available from Amazon. Thx.
ButterYum says
Fabulous recipe – I buy my sun-dried tomatoes in bulk at Costco for way, way, way cheaper than the grocery store, but I’d like to make them myself for even bigger savings. I’ve always wanted to get a dehydrator – will have to pick one up one of these days.
🙂
ButterYum
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom says
The Costco ones are tasty, but if I remember correctly, they have added chemicals. You’ll love these and you’ll love the dehydrator.
Courtney says
We’ve been trying to find a way to save some of our huge tomato crop this year – and this is perfect! Thanks for sharing!!
Laura @ The Art of Cooking Real Food says
These look fantastic! I’ve been looking for a recipe to either dehydrate or store in oil, and I think this one it. Can’t wait to make them! Thanks for sharing!
France @ Beyond The Peel says
Lovely and simple, what more could a person ask for. My crop of tomatoes turned out terrible this year but I’ll go buy a bunch at the market to try this recipe out.
Jennifer W. says
I am interested to know how long the dried tomatoes will keep if stored in the bag (in the pantry) and in the fridge (in oil). Is the oil safe to consume on salads and such too? For some reason I thought I remembered reading that food stored in oil does not keep long.
Thanks!
KitchenKop says
Another reply from Adrienne:
Hi Jennifer –
Though I wouldn’t officially recommend storing the tomatoes in the pantry, if you dry them quite well, they should store well.
The oil is for sure safe to eat. I would recommend storing the oil in the fridge. Once olive oil is opened it is quite vulnerable to rancidity.
Sally says
I have tons of tomtoes right now and have been wanting to try this with my new dehydrator. Thank you!
Michelle in Colorado says
I also marinate the tomatoes in vinegar overnight before drying.
Amy W says
I have been looking for a recipe for this! Perfect timing! Now, how long do these keep?
KitchenKop says
From Adrienne:
Amy,
The amount of time that they will keep depends on how much you dry them and how you store them. I have dried mine pretty thoroughly and have stored them in the fridge with no problem at all and they have kept for a year. If they are in the freezer, they would keep even better. And they were stored in both cases in the small bags w/ the Twixit Clips.
Hope that helps!
shannon says
Love this and I may do that this weekend as I’ve got a few pounds of tomatoes but not really enough to can this week. Anyway, tips on using the sundried tomatoes or how to incorporate them? I usually just blend them into homemade hummus but would love some more ideas.
KitchenKop says
Adrienne is having trouble getting comments to show up, so here’s here reply to you:
Here is how we use our dried tomatoes:
1. We just eat them :-)!
2. I put them in w/ scrambled eggs and omelettes.
3. In pasta dishes. Here is a recipe for Chicken & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta that we just had this past week. It turned out really great! https://wholenewmom.com/recipes/pasta-easy-recipes-chicken-recipe-simple-recipe/
nicolette @ momnivore's dilemma says
Whole New Mom is one of my favorite new-to-me blogs! Adrienne is so wonderful and accessible to her readers. Great guest post choice, Kelly! Hope to see more of these…
Have a garden full of tomatoes and basil. Going to give this a go this weekend…
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom says
Hi Nicolette!
Thanks for the sweet compliment.
Did you get to try the tomatoes? Do share if you have time!
(Hoping my comment posts this time :-)).