Tomato Powder

 

So, my friend that I mentioned in my previous post who harvested my cantaloupes for me while on vacation this past summer also picked my tomatoes for me too.  AND she made me tomato powder!  I had never even heard of doing this with tomatoes, and I think it is just brilliant!  

I made chili with it on Sunday and was amazed!  I didn't have any tomatoes, but had all the other ingredients so I thought I'd try it.  I used three or four tablespoons of tomato powder, and I had one can of RoTel and a tiny can of tomato paste, and made a very large pot of chili.  Seriously, why have I never known about this?  The tomato powder gave it a richer flavor almost like chili when you add cocoa powder to it if you've ever done that, it adds a depth of flavor. 

When I got back from vacation and learned about tomato powder I had to try making some myself.  However, I put my tomatoes in the oven overnight to dehydrate and may have slept in and when I asked my husband early in the morning to take them out of the oven, he just turned off the oven and left them in there.  So, needless to say I had some fire roasted tomatoes - some were pure charcoal...  But after a pep talk from my friend I sifted through the batch and was able to have a small bag full to turn into powder.   

Yesterday, I finally got around to turning them to powder along with a bag my friend gave me as well. So, after dehydrating the tomatoes, I put them in the freezer until they are brittle, and then they go through the food processor.  Some tutorials I read didn't put them in the freezer, but just let them cool.   

The dried tomatoes.  A lot of the tutorials I read their tomatoes are pretty and red, I think actually doing them in a dehydrator will be better, but we just used the oven giving them a more "fire roasted" flavor.  Next year, we'll use the dehydrator!

"Fire roasted" Tomato Powder

Both of my food processors are dying so they didn't quite pulverize everything, so I had to sift the powder out.  I just put these pieces back in a bag and in the freezer and next time I make chili, I'll just toss these in the pot!

I think the coolest thing I read about in the tutorials below is that you can actually make tomato powder from all the discarded tomato skins from when you make spaghetti sauce!  Get out of town!  Do you know how much tomato powder I could have from all the skins from the spaghetti sauce I made?  Oh well, now I know for next year!  And if this post puts you in the mood to make chili, HERE is a yummy recipe!

1.  How to dehydrate tomatoes

2.  DIY Tomato powder

3.  Tomato Powder

4.  Tomato Skins to Tomato Powder