Dehydrated Cherry Tomatoes
Dehydrated Cherry Tomatoes transform your everyday tomatoes into tiny bits of joy, intensely concentrated with flavor. Delight in your oven-dried cherry tomatoes as a snack, a topping for salads, or even to make a pesto. You’ll soon be dehydrating everything, from dried strawberries and dried apple rings to kale waffle chips.
It’s easy to preserve the sunny days of summer by making sun dried cherry tomatoes in your oven. So read on to learn all the detailed tips and tricks, or just grab your tomatoes, hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s start dehydrating some cherry tomatoes!
Jump to:
Ingredients
This recipe for dehydrating cherry tomatoes was originally inspired and is repeated every year when I need to pick the cherry tomatoes in my garden before the first rain of the season. I’m not the only one who arranges by color, right?
Whether you grow your own cherry tomatoes or buy them from a market, you’ll want tomatoes for this recipe that are ripe but not bursting. If your tomatoes aren’t quite ripe, you can put them in a brown paper bag to speed up the process. That’s because tomatoes produce and are sensitive to ethylene gas after they’re picked., just like apples, bananas, and avocados.
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Tools for oven drying
If you don’t own a dehydrator, you can dehydrate cherry tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables in your oven. A stackable dehydrator rack makes it easy.
Recipe tips and tricks
Step 1: Wash tomatoes only right before you use them. To make these oven-dried cherry tomatoes, first slice them in half from North to South Pole.
Some other recipes for drying cherry tomatoes suggest removing the seeds so your tomatoes take less time to dehydrate. I’m lazy, and that seems like only a lot of work.
Step 2: Brush the cut face of the tomatoes with a mixture of salt, pepper, and olive oil. I like to use a dishwasher-safe silicone pastry brush.
Step 3: Dehydrate in your oven or dehydrator. If using your oven, consider rotating the trays a few times in the drying process. If using a dehydrator, dry your cherry tomatoes at 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
The photo below shows the dehydrating cherry tomatoes from raw, to 5 hours in, and then 8 hours. You can stop at any point you like. Just know that if your dehydrated cherry tomatoes have moisture, they may mold if left at room temperature.
How to use dehydrated tomatoes
Dehydrating cherry tomatoes makes a great snack, and there are hundreds of ways to use them in cooking:
- On top a salad like this pumpkin couscous salad or raw carrot salad.
- In a pecan chicken salad
- Added to risotto or a pasta like cavatappi mac and cheese or cavatappi alfredo.
- Added to no-knead bread or skillet cornbread.
- As the main ingredient in a pesto or as tomato paste to amp up the tomato in your favorite pizza sauce or shakshuka.
- Added to your dehydrated camping food.
Recipe FAQs
If you want to store dehydrated tomatoes at room temperature for longer than a week or two, you will want to make sure to completely dehydrate them so they have no moisture at all. Otherwise, dehydrated tomatoes should be used within a week or so.
Raw tomatoes don’t freeze, but they can be canned. Or you can freeze these cherry tomatoes after dehydrating.
I always plant Sweet Million cherry tomatoes. Seattle summers are really variable, and this varietal is an indeterminate tomato plant that produces abundant, sweet fruit.
Related tomato recipes
Check out other Ugly Duckling Bakery recipes with fresh ripe, tomatoes like:
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
Dehydrated Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes (about 40 to 50 tomatoes)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Slice the tomatoes in half and place them cut side up on a dehydrating rack suitable for your oven if it has a dehydrator function or your dehydrator.2 pints cherry tomatoes (about 40 to 50 tomatoes)
- Mix the olive oil, salt, and pepper, and use a pastry brush to brush a small amount over the cut surface.2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Dehydrate in your oven on the dehydrate setting at 175°F or in a dehydrator on the fruit and vegetable setting until the tomatoes are the desired dryness.
- If completely dry, you can store at room temperature, although I will always recommend you store in the refrigerator for safety.
Notes
Nutrition
Looking for inspiration?
Sign up to get recipes full of kitchen tips and tricks.