Since I was a little girl, one thing my mother taught me was to try and use as much of any produce from your garden as possible. Did you know that after canning your tomato juice instead of throwing them away, you can use the skins to make homemade tomato powder?

I am actually surprised more people don’t use this easy to make condiment in their cooking. I use it mostly for adding to my soups and sauces to give them a thicker constituency. I think it also gives them a richer taste, than just using tomatoes alone. Besides, if you ever run out of tomatoes you could add a little water to the powder and end up with a nice tomato paste.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• tomato skins
• large saucepan
• water
• food dehydrator
• food processor

The best type of tomato skins to use are ones without any blemishes or mold. The blanching of your tomatoes to remove the skins should be for about 2 minutes only. Remove from the hot water and immediately transfer to a bowl of cold water. This will make it easier to slip the skins off.

The skins are then placed on trays and dried in the dehydrator for about 8 to 12 hours. The skins should be crisp and brittle before your process them in your food processor. Store your powder in an air tight container or jar. Expect to get about 1 cup of powder from fifty pounds of tomatoes.

You can follow step by step instructions on the Joybilee Farm blog, here…

How To Make Tomato Powder

You can watch the video below on how to make tomato powder from tomatoes…

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