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Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes while not being entirely a recipe, it is something, I have always drooled over and considered them as Gold. How can you not when just a handful of these shrivelled beauties are charged somewhere around 400 to 500 bucks? I had to kick myself for following so long like a willing sheep when it came to these sun dried tomatoes for always believing that these could only be bought from gourmet shops.
I’m hounded by guilt for not thinking out of the box before and considering them as mere vathals (general term for sundried veggies), while we Indians do not think twice about drying out veggies like mango, cluster beans or berries etc., Why did my mind refused to give out the same standard treatment to the good old tomatoes too? but instead had me jealous of the friendly Italians and letting out a longing sigh whenever I came across recipes that used sundried tomatoes in them.
I really had to thank Aparna for making me sit up and take notice of how ridiculously easy it was and Rhea for inspiring me with her pictures of tomatoes taking a leisurely sun bath on FB and I scrambled into action. I had been jealous long enough and its my time to make others jealous until they give up and make some of this.
I do not get the good old cherry tomatoes where I live, so the second best option was to go for standard tomatoes that looked the size of cherry tomatoes and all I had to do was cut them into half, arrange them on a plate and let it dry out in the sun.
I had to cover the top of the plate with a cloth to prevent any dust from falling on to them and as you can see this is how they looked after a day of sun bathing in the hot sun. At this stage I guess instead of having to dry them for another day, you could also use your oven for an hour to dry them out completely before storing.
But since I had plenty of sun, thanks to living in a tropical country, I decided to send them out on a picnic for another day and this is how they looked after their second day. They were totally parched and dehydrated. I stored it in olive oil just to keep them hydrated and happy.
Notes:
– While storing in oil, leave some space on top as the tomatoes will slightly increase in size after absorbing the oil.
– You can leave out garlic if you do not like and instead add dried herbs too.
– If you do not have olive oil at hand, use any other unflavored oil like sunflower oil.
– You can also drop out the salt, oil etc and store the tomatoes in a ziploc bag and freeze them.
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Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes recipe details below:
Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes - 1 kg ripe
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Garlic powder – 1 tsp (optional)
- Olive oil – 1 cup approx
Instructions:
- Wash and wipe the tomatoes. If using cherry tomatoes, cut them into half but if you are using standard tomatoes, quarter them so that they could dry quickly. You can also slice them into 1/4 inch thick roundels.
- Arrange them on a plate with the cut side up and let it sit under hot sun for 2 days.
- When the tomatoes are dried and shriveled in size, transfer them to a clean, dry jar.
- Add salt, garlic powder and shake well.
- Now add the oil, till they are completely covered.
- Use as and when required.
Radha Natarajan
May 8, 2014 at 5:53 pmYou bet!! Now I am jealous!! Radhika, such a simple thing isnt it to get us so envious of simple pleasures and yet this is not a great discovery, all our moms, grandmas were doing this and still are, my mom still does this, drying out every possible veggie and so nonchalantly too, here we jump and leap!! but such a nice post with beautiful pics….now to find some tomaotes 🙂
Roshni
May 8, 2014 at 6:13 pmmy god Radhika.. i never knew it was so easy to make them.. here I get them cheaper than buying tomatoes 🙂 but will definitely tell ppl in India 🙂
AparnaRajeshkumar
May 8, 2014 at 6:23 pmits very lovely to see home made 😀 usually i made dried version to prepare gravy as well as fry 😀 Very appealing pictures
Shanthi
May 8, 2014 at 7:00 pmI love sun dried tomatoes…good effort..
Anonymous
May 8, 2014 at 7:47 pmCan we use Roma or vine tomatoes instead of cherry tomato?
Radhika Subramanian
May 9, 2014 at 6:59 pmAny tomatoes will do as long as they are ripe.
Veena Theagarajan
May 8, 2014 at 8:22 pmso easy way to do sun dried tomatoes.. store brought is very expensive
Priya Suresh
May 9, 2014 at 1:17 amWell done, even i love to make this way at home, cheap and best than the store bought one.
Priya Sreeram
May 9, 2014 at 6:41 ami agree radhika- sun dried tomatoes sounded gourmet stuff to me too, till i found how ridiculously simple they were to make…. nice pics
Farin Ahmed
May 9, 2014 at 5:48 pmWow!!!! Wonderful and useful post dear…Love the pic
nayana
May 9, 2014 at 7:27 pmWow never imagined they can b si easily done at home will try this for sure. Thanks a lot for making it so easy
Julie
May 9, 2014 at 8:04 pmuseful post,looks perfectly done 🙂
Style-Delights
May 11, 2014 at 3:05 amGreat tip! I use sun dried tomatoes so much in my kitchen, will never have to buy them in a jar again!!;)
Anonymous
May 25, 2014 at 8:52 amSo simple..thanx a million… always thot this was something that was available in gourmet stores…. bless u….
Gayatri
March 17, 2015 at 11:49 amHas any1 tried drying the tomatoes in a car parked out in the sun!!! super quick method of drying them 😀
Radhika
March 18, 2015 at 12:07 pmoh yeah,the quickest and bestest way to dry them out.
Anonymous
April 9, 2018 at 4:46 pmDo we need to refrigerate the tomatoes overnight after the the first day of drying in the sun? Won’t they go bad since they’re not fully dry?
Radhika
September 19, 2018 at 3:59 pmno need to refrigerate. they won’t spoil even though they are not fully dried.