Oven Dried Tomatoes Feature Image

Oven-Dried Tomatoes | How to Dehydrate Tomatoes!

Oven-dried tomatoes taste amazing and are super easy. Drying the tomatoes condenses the flavor and makes them extra delicious. 

Oven Dried Tomatoes Uncooked

My garden is producing little tomatoes like crazy, and since I don’t have the wherewithal to eat pounds and pounds of tomatoes a day, I need to extend their longevity. Unfortunately, another thing I don’t have the wherewithal for is blanching and peeling hundreds of little tomatoes for canning. 

Enter: oven-dried tomatoes. They are like sundried tomatoes, but you get to control the time and the temperature. 

Because you are removing the moisture from the tomatoes, they keep much longer than fresh tomatoes. The drier you get them, the longer they keep. As a bonus, they store wonderfully in the freezer. Since you have removed most of the water, they don’t get mushy after freezing. 


Techniques for perfect oven-dried tomatoes 

  • Pick your tomatoes wisely. Little tomatoes, like cherry, yellow pear, kumato,, and angel sweet all work great in this. Plum tomatoes are also great to dehydrate. Big juicy tomatoes, not so much. You want to choose tomatoes that have less liquid already. That way you have a relatively short dehydrate time, and plenty of tomato flesh left when you are done. 
  • How low can you go? We’re trying to dehydrate, not roast. If your oven gets too hot, you’ll end up roasting your tomatoes, which means they will brown and eventually burn before they get nice and dehydrated. My oven will consistently hold a temperature of 250°F, which is perfect for this. Make sure yours can hold a low temperature too. When I set my old oven to 250°F, it would spike to 325°F and then cool down to 250°F before spiking again; this was not ideal for dehydrating. I found it was actually better to set it to 275°F, which it could hold consistently.
  • Get creative! This recipe is super simple, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it. Add different herbs and spices to mix it up. Be aware though, you lose a lot of volume when drying tomatoes, so when you season them, keep in mind that they will be smaller. 
  • Try dehydrating halfway. If you don’t need to store these for a long time, they taste amazing when they are halfway dehydrated. The flavors concentrate while maintaining a bit of juiciness. Delicious!

Ingredients for Oven-Dried Tomatoes

  • Small Tomatoes: Small tomatoes are perfect for dehydrating. Because they have a higher flesh to juice ratio, they get nice a chewy in the oven. Regular cherry tomatoes are fine, but I also like to use whatever I have growing in my garden.
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Since we keep the heat really low on these, the fruity flavor of the extra virgin olive oil still comes through at the end.
  • Kosher Salt: Kosher salt has larger flakes than table salt, which makes it taste extra yummy on these little dehydrated tomatoes. You can sub the kosher salt for salt flakes if you have those on hand.

How to Dehydrate Tomatoes in the Oven

  1. Preheat your oven to 250°F (or the lowest temperature it will hold).
  2. Gently stir together sliced tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, and the salt.
  3. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, arrange the tomatoes cut side up. Dehydrate the tomatoes in the oven at 250°F until the tomatoes are to desired dehydration. For partial dehydration, about 2 hours, for full dehydration, about 3 hours. The size of the tomatoes and your oven may cause the total time to vary.

Try these tasty tomatoes on our Pasta with Oven Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic or White Bean Tuscan Hummus!

Yield: About 1 cup dried tomatoes

Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Oven Dried Tomatoes Feature Image

These little tomatoes are packed with flavor and taste great by themselves, with cheese, on pasta, and with salads.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups small tomatoes, sliced in half
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

    1. Adjust the rack to the middle position, then preheat the oven to 250°F.
    2. Mix: In a medium bowl, gently combine the sliced tomatoes, the extra virgin olive oil, and the salt.
    3. Dehydrate: On a parchment-lined baking sheet, arrange the tomatoes cut side up. Dehydrate the tomatoes in the oven at 250°F until the tomatoes are to desired dehydration. For partial dehydration, about 2 hours, for full dehydration, about 3 hours. The size of the tomatoes and your oven may cause the total time to vary.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

2

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 89Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 537mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 2gSugar: 4gProtein: 1g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

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