Knowing how to make tomato powder and use it is one of the keys to getting your time and money’s worth from the tomatoes in your garden.
If you’ve ever made salsa, you’ve probably looked at that pile of tomato skins, seeds, and pulp and felt just a little ripped off.
Well, no more! Rather than tossing those parts of the tomato away, turn them into tomato powder.
Not into canning or making fresh salsa? You can turn mealy tomatoes, or ones that are about to go bad (cut away any black spots) into tomato powder, too. Now you don’t have to feel guilty for not using your produce quickly enough.
How To Make Tomato Powder
It’s astonishingly easy.
Step 1. Prepare the peels
Squeeze tomato peels dry with a clean towel then scatter them on a dehydrator tray. If you don’t have a dehydrator, spread the peels in a single layer on a baking sheet. (I love this inexpensive dehydrator bought from Amazon.)
Step 2: Prepare the pulp
Line another dehydrator tray with a fruit roll sheet, or cut parchment paper to fit. If you don’t have a dehydrator, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Spoon the tomato pulp onto the sheet and spread it thinly using a spatula.
Step 3: Dry them
Turn your dehydrator to 135°F/57°C, or pop the baking sheets into a 180°F/82°C oven, and check the trays regularly. For dehydrators, you’ll want to peek every hour or so and rotate the racks each time. If using an oven, check it after an hour and again every 30 minutes or so.
The skins are usually the first to dry — around 4 hours in my dehydrator — followed an hour or two later by the pulp. You’ll know when the skins are dry because they’ll be papery, whereas the pulp will look like dried cat yack. (Really.)
Step 4: Cool them
Remove the trays from the dehydrator or oven but leave the tomato peels and pulp on them. Let them sit until they’re completely cooled, ideally overnight. Waiting overnight allows any remaining moisture to evaporate and keeps your tomato powder from clumping during storage.
Step 5: Powder them
Once completely cooled, tip the skins into a blender or food processor and whir them until they’re powdery. Dump that into a bowl and repeat using the tomato pulp. Combine the two and transfer the powder to airtight storage containers or vacuum seal small bags of the stuff.
How To Use Tomato Powder
Once you know how to make tomato powder, you’ll find it an amazingly versatile addition to your pantry. I often stir it into soups or stews, sprinkle it on scrambled eggs, and even use it to jazz up a homemade vinaigrette. Here are some other uses for it:
Tomato paste: Only need a tablespoon or two of tomato paste? Don’t open a can. Mix 2 parts powder to 1 part water to make as much or as little tomato paste as you need.
Tomato sauce: Combine 1 part tomato powder to 6 parts water to make tomato sauce. To make the equivalent of a 15-oz can use 1/3 cup tomato powder and 2 cups of water.
Tomato juice: Stir 2 tablespoons tomato powder into 8 ounces of cold water for a refreshing tomato juice without all the nasty sodium and preservatives of the store-bought stuff. (Add a splash of clam juice for homemade Clamato — yum!)
Instant tomato soup: Stir 2 tablespoons of tomato powder into 8 ounces of boiling water. Add a pinch of onion and/or garlic powder, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mmmm, good!
Pizza sauce Combine 1/2 cup tomato powder and 1 1/2 cups water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and stir in 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder, oregano, and basil, plus a pinch of salt. Add 1 tsp. of sugar to counter the acidity, and simmer until the sauce is thick.
Now that you know how to make tomato powder and use it, don’t let those peels and pulp or the mealy tomatoes on your counter go to waste!
Tomato Powder
Ingredients
- Tomato skins and pulp
Instructions
- Squeeze skins in a paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible.
- Spread skins on an unlined dehydrator tray and pulp on one lined with parchment. If using an oven, spread on lined baking sheets.
- Turn your dehydrator to 135°F/57°C. For oven-drying, place the sheets in the middle of the oven and set it to 180°F/82°C. Rotate dehydrator racks or baking sheets every 30 minutes. Remove the skins when they’re papery and the pulp when it’s completely dry.
- Let cool completely on the counter until room temperature. Transfer to a blender or food processor and blend on HIGH until powdered. Store in an air-tight container.
Felix T. Katt says
Let’s say you purchase 16oz. of whole tomatoes from your local big-name supermarket. You steam them, ice ’em, and peel the skins; remove the seeds, and make them into 12oz. worth of tomato sauce that you’ll use later. At $1.49 a pound for tomatoes, that’s a bit more expensive than the $0.99 15oz. can of store-brand plain tomato sauce.
Would you get enough tomato powder from the scraps of making the 12oz. tomato sauce that if you turned it all into paste, and compared it to a like amount of generic canned paste, it would make/exceed the cost deficit?
I suppose the bottom line is – Can this still be cost effective with purchased tomatoes as opposed to gardened ones?
Katie Berry says
I wouldn’t bother doing such a small amount, personally. I make tomato powder from the scraps left after making ketchup or tomato sauce. The juice gets canned as tomato juice. So, basically, I’m getting three products out of any tomatoes I buy, which is what helps make this more economical.
As for the price of tomatoes, I pay $0.99 a pound at our green grocery, but in about 3 weeks the grocery stores will be running tomatoes at $0.50 a pound. Local farmer’s markets also have tomatoes very cheap this time of year, too.
Where I live it’s pretty common to see local gardeners selling home-grown tomatoes out of the back of pickup trucks or lemonade-style stands at the gas station or garden center. I often wait until they’re getting ready to close up then offer to buy whatever they have left. Doing that, I’ve managed to get tomatoes as low as $0.30 per pound because they don’t want to haul them home.
So to answer your ultimate question: it’s cost-effective if you’re a good shopper, and if you’re using the tomatoes for more than just converting them into powder.
Jenny K says
Woah. And another woah. I have never heard of doing this before but it’s brilliant!!! How long do you think the powder will last in a mason jar? I’m wondering too if I could freeze the powder. The last time I grew tomatoes I wept at the amount of stuff that was wasted.
Katie Berry says
Providing you completely dry the stuff, it should last at least a year. You could always toss one of those moisture-absorbing packets (the kind you find in new handbags or shoe boxes) and it’ll last even longer.
Amanda says
This looks like a great idea! I recently canned diced tomatoes, so I only have the skins. The pulp and seeds stayed in the jars. I was wondering if the power will still turn out if I only process the skins?
Katie Berry says
Absolutely! In fact, you’ll probably get a smoother powder from it.
Kazevac says
I dry my excess tomatoes as above then freeze them as dried slices. When I use them I grind them in a nutribullet and add them to sauces to thicken them and add flavour. Have always still been good at a year in a ziplock palstic bag. takes up very little space.
Katie Berry says
That’s a wonderful way to do it, Kazevac!
Becky says
Thank you so much for this very complete, useful post. I am wondering about the pizza sauce recipe: what is the other spice besides garlic powder that is meant when you say 1/2 tsp “each”? Again, many thanks!
Katie Berry says
Thank you for catching that, Becky! I’ve fixed it so now it reads 1/2 tsp. each garlic powder, basil, and oregano, plus a pinch of salt. 🙂
Sarah says
Can you give more thorough measurements for tomato paste and tomato sauce. Thank you.
Katie Berry says
When a recipe calls for 1 part of one ingredient to 6 parts of another, you adjust it based on how much you want to make. The tomato sauce use, for example, says 1 part tomato powder to 6 parts water. You can make those parts teaspoons, in which case you’d use 1 teaspoon of tomato powder and 6 teaspoons of water. Or, you could make them cups and combine 1 cup of tomato powder and 6 cups water.
jim says
what an amazing idea. I’ve had to give this stuff out to the animals for decades. And, yes I complained everytime I did it. Now I can use what I normally would have discarded. This means less waste. And the use part is nothing short of awesome. So sorry I am new to the internet and just now finding your helpful information. I just discarded the remains of 200 lbs of tomatoes. just imagine how much powder that would have made. This is being copied into my canning notes for next years crop. THANK YOU.
Katie Berry says
Well, first off, welcome to the internet! 😉 I’m glad you found this helpful. 200 lbs of tomatoes is a lot to be discarded, so I’m guessing that you have a vast garden or a small farm. If you’ve been feeding tomato peels to chickens, please be sure to make up for it with other veg scraps – you’ll keep them laying year-round and have much better eggs than one could buy in the store! Otherwise, turning your tomato peels into powder is a fantastic way to make use of them. You might also like my ideas about how to use other kitchen scraps. Waste not, want not!
David Farley says
After you think it is to old put in compost pile.. Mine are vacuum seals in canning jars. Over 1 year old fast fine still. Also if you grow worms for your garden… I make a mix vegie blend. Add water put in ice tray. Frozen worm food. They thrive on it
Cyndi T says
Hi Katie,
This is my first time coming across your website…and what a happy delight! I’ve been looking for recipes all day for Ketchup
made with tomato powder. I see where you’ve mentioned making ketchup from tomato powder…..I wonder if you please share
your recipe with us?!?? It would be Highly Appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Katie Berry says
Hi Cyndi! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my site. I do have a homemade ketchup recipe here, but I don’t use tomato powder to make it.
Wendy says
OMG Dried cat yack hilarious!
Shelia Heverin says
I made tomato powder last night. It seems to wasnt to get clumpy. Any ideas how to not have it clump into one blob?
Katie Berry says
It’s possible that it’s not fully dry. Even though you’ve already powered it, you can dry it a bit more to see if that helps. Just keep an eye on it, to make sure it doesn’t burn. Another option is to mix it with a little cornstarch, but that will thicken whatever you use it in. I’ve found the very best solution is to add a silica packet to the container. You don’t have to buy them — they often come tucked inside shoeboxes or clothing purchased online, in new handbags, or other items. Don’t open it — just pop the entire packet in the container and it’ll soak up any moisture to keep your tomato powder dry.
Silibaziso Masuku says
Thank you so much for the information. I planted about 40 tomato plants in my garden and I have a bucket full of ripe tomatoes. I was actually wondering where to sell them coz the market is kind of overflowing with tomatoes. Thank you