Drying Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes can be a “problem” at this time of year in the Midwest. There are so many of them that people start to give pails of them away. How can you say no to such generosity? So you start eating them as snacks, on salads, with cottage cheese and season salt, even making vegetable juice out of them. Finally, what do you do with those last three ice cream pails that are dead ripe and beginning to attract fruit flies?

You do what you probably should have done in the first place—you get out your food dehydrator and ALL of its drying trays! Cherry tomatoes are one of the least difficult fruits to dry.

1. Rinse and spread on a towel to air or pat dry.
2. Cut each tomato in half and prick the skin of each half with a knife.
3. Lay cut side up and ½ inch apart on dehydrator tray.
4. Dry until they are crispy, rotating trays if your drier doesn’t have a fan.(Take a fruit from the tray and allow it to cool before testing for crispness.)
5. Store in an air-tight container away from light and extreme heat.

These little tomatoes can be rehydrated with a little boiling water and used in any way you would use “sundried tomatoes”—on pizza, in soups and casseroles, and pureed with other ingredients to make spreads for special gatherings. They also make great Christmas gifts. Red and Yellow cherry tomatoes look pretty layered in a clear glass jar.

Try drying some cherry tomatoes this year! Begonia

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Drying Cherry Tomatoes Is Quick and Easy

"Sundried" Cherry Tomatoes