Tomato Skins - Don't Toss 'Em !

Whenever you dehydrate tomatoes, here is a way to get extra bang for your buck! There is a tremendous amount of nutrition in the skins of just about every fruit and veggie in the world. Don’t toss those peelings and skins.

If you’re not sure how to peel tomatoes, I have a good little video on it. Check it out.

Here are the skins from 30 pounds of plum tomatoes I recently dehydrated. Spread them out on your racks and dehydrate as usual.  I started out at about 95 degrees, but turned it up to 110 because they seemed so wet.

After drying, they are crisp and crackly.

 

 Some of them stuck to the racks. So here’s an easy way to get things unstuck.  I flip the racks over and use a table knife. Most of the time, the food just pops off into my cooling box. I use a cupcake carrier with a lid. It’s just the right size to hold the foods until they are thoroughly dry. Plus the lid is handy if I don’t have time to bag them right away.

After they were cool and dry, I buzzed them in the food processor.

That produced flakes.

        
However, this time I wanted powder for soups and seasonings. So I used my Magic Bullet.  It is a much higher speed little processor. You can use a coffee or spice grinder for the same effect.

          

The end result is a nice, fine powder.

What to do with dehydrated tomato skins:

Tomato Flakes

•  add to tossed salads for great salad sprinkles
• sprinkle on sandwiches for added nutrition & flavor
• add to soups and stews
• use in making sauces

Tomato Powder:

• add to instant soups
• use as seasoning in all sorts of dishes
• use in making sauces

Linda's Note: if you have any more suggestions of how you use them, please post in a comment below!