Powdered Tomatoes

If you are canning tomatoes and you end up with a pile of skin and seeds… Can you do anything with it? Why, yes. Yes you can. Dehydrating and powdering the skin and seeds gives you a unique spice. You can add the flavor of fresh homegrown tomatoes to anything.

All you need is a cookie sheet (with a lip), some parchment paper and a way to heat this around 120°F for a day or two, depending on the water content. Once I dried it, I put it in a blender and now I have tomato powder. Today I used it on some cottage cheese, then I put a blob of homemade, unflavored yogurt on top and added a ton of pepper. It was delicious.

Once you powder something: you have an ultra concentrated way to add flavor to dishes. You can do this to any vegetable or fruit. Just shred stiffer veggies like carrots or beets, before you dehydrate them. If you powder things like: carrots, celery, onions etc you won’t have to run to the store if you run out, and you need some as an ingredient for dinner.

How about all of those super hot peppers you grew? Same thing. Throw them in a blender and use a spatula to spread them across the parchment paper and dry them.

Don’t have an oven that will go that low? Look up instructions for dehydrating in a microwave. That’s the way my granny dried all of her herbs. I’m lucky enough to have several really low settings on my oven. I’m dehydrating a mix of peppers that I froze over the span of the summer. Now my husband will be able to add heat to anything.

Remember: a pepper’s heat is mostly in the seeds. So, powder everything, including the seeds. My husband is addicted to Tabasco. I have tried to make my own version but it was never exactly what he wanted. I don’t bother trying to do ferments or canning for him anymore.

Powdering habaneros, bird peppers, banana peppers and jalapeños: creates heat and flavor he can add to whatever  he’s eating. It gives me a way to use hot peppers and he’s happy.

Meet you out in the garden to turn up the heat.

Crazy Green Thumbs