Recipe: Sun-Dried Tomatoes... Even When The Sun Isn't Shining
With 18 tomato plants in the garden, one needs to get creative. One day I decided to make sun-dried tomatoes... without using the sun.
Source
Daily Harvest
It was not really on purpose, but somehow I ended up having no less than 18 tomato plants in my garden. Now the gardening season is ending, I have to go out an pick tomatoes every day. Our daily harvest is a lot bigger than the two of us can process... and face it: you can't eat tomato soup or spaghetti sauce every day.
Part of the tomato harvest goes into the freezer instantly. If we want to make a tomato sauce or soup some time during winter, all we need to do is take them out and cook them.
Still, I wanted to use a lot of the fresh ones - they taste so much better than the ones you buy in the store. So I went looking for alternative ways to prepare them.
One of the ideas I came across was to make sun-dried tomatoes. Now, I'm not very fond of the store-bought ones, but I thought I'd just as well give it a try using fresh tomatoes.
And you know what... I simply loved them!
Sun-Drying Tomatoes Without The Sun
Not that I'm an expert on sun-dried tomatoes, but I did expect the sun would have at least something to do with it. Apparently not... you can make them just as well without the sun. You just use the oven instead.
Did you know that the bigger part of the sun-dried tomatoes you buy in the store, was actually dried in the oven??
I thought this whole oven-idea was a bit weird, but convenient. :0)
The Recipe
Below, you'll find an outline of the steps to take to make your own, delicious sun-dried tomatoes.
1 Cut your tomatoes in parts.
Cherry tomatoes can be cut in half, medium tomatoes can be cut in quarters, large tomatoes can be cut in 8 parts.
2 Take out the seeds and the pulp.
3 Taken an oven tray and cover it with a sheet of baking paper.
4 Put your tomato parts on the baking paper, skin down.
5 Cover the tomatoes with some salt.
6 Let them rest for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, you can create your dressing.
7 Put a little olive oil (or another kind of oil if you don't like the taste of olive oil) in the blender. Add a clove of garlic, some parsley, some thyme, some rosemary and a bit of basil and mix it until you have a smooth oil again.
8 Preheat the oven to 60°C (140°F).
9 Grind some pepper over your salted tomatoes.
10 Pour a little drop of oil over all tomato parts.
11 Put your oven trays in the oven.
Now all you have to do is wait. You can leave the tomatoes in the oven for about 4 to 5 hours. Check the result regularly, because you don't want your tomatoes to dry out completely.
13 Add them to jars you can close, and add some extra pepper and salt to each jar.
14 Add a clove of garlic and some extra herbs to each jar.
You can use different herbs for each jar, but be sure to keep the garlic.
15 Now pour oil in the jars until everything in it is covered with the oil.
16 Close the jars and put them in the fridge for about 48 hours.
17 Enjoy!
(If you make a large batch, you can also freeze the jars to preserve the sun-dried tomatoes and enjoy them later)
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I shouldn't be on here right now lol, got so much to do, but I saw this and just had to read it :) So simple and perfect idea @simplymike. I'm a huge fan of sundried tomatoes too!
Submitting to c-squared :)
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
How is the moving going? All packed?
Great description! I like tomatoes, but this is a way i never had eat them before. Thanks for that mate.
Then you should really try it some time
OMGosh! This recipe is a keeper!
I LOVE sun-dried tomatoes but the cost in the store can be quite pricey; and I am not too fond of leaving them to sit out in the sun leaving them fair game for flies, bugs, insects.
They are indeed expensive if you have to buy them. And when you make them yourself you can make different batches with different herbs... And it's so easy :0)
That's a good looking recipe, there is no doubt in my mind that it will work just fine. A really good way to process some of the excess.
I already have a freezer filled with tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato soup. I had to try something different for a change:0)
YUM! What a smart recipe! Sounds wonderful! I hope you enjoy eating that! And, thanks for sharing the process <3
Although I really detest the ones you buy in the store, I absolutely love these ones
Oh they sound so good! Yesterday, i started making salsa for canning. I squeezed out the juices & seeds so the salsa wasn't too runny. I left the tomato juices & seeds sit in a bowl overnight. Some of the seeds sprouted overnight! LOL the light must have done it! SO fun! What do you do with the juices & seeds of the tomatoes? I am going to add them to some soup I am making.
They sprouted overnight?? Those must have been super-seeds, lol.
I added the pulp and the seeds to a soup I made. At first, I wanted to save some seeds to sow again next year, but I was too lazy to clean them. And I still have loads of seeds that I bought this year, so I thought: why bother?! Lmao
Haha soup it is! Seriously! Looks at these super-seeds! I don't think the seeds need much cleaning when the time comes. The wet stuff will dry up if you leave the goopy seeds on brown paper. But, best to save yourself the trouble when you've got plenty of seed to use up. Have a wonderful day!
I really thought they dried under the sun... hmmm....
When they are made 'the old-fashioned way' (artisenal) they will probably be dried in the sun. But I think for the big commercial distribution that would take too long to be convenient.
You are right, nowadays everything natural has been commercialised.
bio is big business these days
Indeed!
Hi @simplymike... few questions
This recipe is definitely easy to handle. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to try it out myself. If using larger tomatoes better ?
I think you can use any size of tomato. Just cut larger tomatoes in 8 parts.
4 or 5 hours should do the trick.
You can use any oil you want. Personally, I don't like olive oil, so I use sunflower oil
Great. Thanks for the tip
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You're welcome, @ireenchew
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Thanks for sharing
You're welcome :)
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