How to Make Tomato Powder from Leftover Skins (A Frugal Favorite)
If you’re wondering why you would want to make tomato powder, the simplest answer is: salad dressing! It’s a key ingredient in my very favorite homemade dressing (and a delicious sandwich spread). And, of course, you always feel impressed with yourself when you make something out of nothing. This is a surprisingly versatile recipe for tomato season.
Ingredients and Tools You’ll Need
You don’t need much for this, but there aren’t a lot of workarounds if you’re missing something.
- Tomato skins! However many you have is fine. This is the perfect thing to make after canning crushed tomatoes when you have lots of leftover peels. As a general rule, the peels from 20 pounds of tomatoes will make about 1/4 cup of powder. The type of tomato doesn’t much matter, but any of the best canning tomatoes will work perfectly.
- A dehydrator. I’d love to tell you an oven will work, but it won’t unless it goes down to 120 degrees. Excalibur is the gold standard, and all my sisters-in-law love theirs, but I have this one and like it just fine.
- Parchment paper or a mesh liner for your dehydrator tray. Your machine likely came with one.
- Coffee grinder or spice grinder.
How to Make Tomato Powder
Like any dehydrator recipe, this will take a while but doesn’t require a lot of work. Just be patient and go about your day!
Step One: Place the Peels in the Dehydrator
If your dehydrator didn’t come with a mesh liner, use parchment paper, or else the skins can fall through, which is messy and super annoying.
A little bit of overlapping is okay, but don’t stack the peels. They should be in a single layer or they’ll take forever to dry.
Step Two: Process for 12 Hours
Put your trays in the dehydrator and set it to 115 degrees. Go about your day. This will take a while! There will be a distinct tomato smell in your kitchen, but nothing too terrible.
You know they’re done when they’re completely brittle, with no flexibility.
Step 3: Remove and Cool the Skins
The skins won’t be all that hot, so they’re easy to handle and cool fast. But they really need to be completely at room temperature before you grind them. Grinding warm skins can create condensation inside your storage container, leading to clumping or even mold.
You’ll see some slight darkening at the edges, but they should still be red, not brown.
Step Four: Grind
Working in batches, grind the skins into a powder. You shouldn’t see any visible pieces of skin. We want it to be a true powder.
Make sure not to stuff your grinder full, or you’ll end up with some big pieces of skin that don’t process as well.
Step Five: Store
I like to store this in a wide-mouth mason jar with an easy plastic twist-off lid. I typically make less than 1/2 a cup at a time, so it fits just fine in a half-pint jar.
It would take an extreme amount of tomatoes to make more than a cup of tomato powder, so small jars will be all you need.
Your powder will stay fresh for a year as long as you tightly seal the lid. For truly long-term storage, vacuum sealing extends the shelf life to 10 years.
If you live in a humid climate, divide your powder into smaller containers so you don’t repeatedly expose the entire batch to humid air.
Ways to Use Tomato Powder
The classic use for this is reconstituting with water to make tomato paste or sauce, but I prefer to use it in recipes.
For Tomato Paste:
- Ratio: 1:2-3 (1 part powder to 2-3 parts water)
- Mix 1 tablespoon tomato powder with 2-3 tablespoons water
- Adjust consistency by adding more or less water
- Scale up or down depending on your needed amount
For Tomato Sauce:
- Ratio: 1:4 (1 part powder to 4 parts water)
- Mix 1 tablespoon tomato powder with 4 tablespoons water
- Adjust measurements to your desired amount
- Stir well until completely dissolved
This makes a sauce that’s great for using in recipes, but not one worthy of tossing in pasta.
Tomato Herb Mayo (use on sandwiches!)
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 teaspoons tomato powder
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped chives
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
- Pinch of salt
Quick Tomato Vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon tomato powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- Pinch of salt and pepper
Whisk all ingredients together until the tomato powder fully dissolves.
Questions and Troubleshooting
You could! But they stick together and are hard to pull apart. Easier just to deal with them as you generate them.
You need a low humidity 115-degree situation. So if you live in the desert, perhaps.
This is a storage issue and happens when too much moisture is introduced to the powder. Break up the clumps with a fork or butter knife. You can also reblend it in your spice grinder.
Printable Recipe
Homemade Tomato Powder
Equipment
- Dehydrator (must go down to 120°F or lower)
- Parchment paper or mesh liner for dehydrator trays
- Coffee or spice grinder
- Small mason jar for storage
Ingredients
- Tomato skins peels from about 20 pounds of tomatoes yields approximately 1/4 cup powder
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Instructions
- Prepare the Peels: Arrange tomato skins in a single layer on dehydrator trays lined with parchment paper or mesh liner. A little overlapping is okay, but don’t stack.
- Dehydrate: Set dehydrator to 115°F and dry for about 12 hours. Skins are done when completely brittle with no flexibility.
- Cool: Remove skins and let cool completely to room temperature before grinding to prevent condensation.
- Grind: Working in small batches, grind the dried skins into a fine powder with no visible pieces remaining.
- Store: Keep in a tightly sealed jar. Will stay fresh for 1 year with regular storage or up to 10 years if vacuum sealed. In humid climates, use smaller containers to limit exposure.
By Katie Shaw
Katie shares simple, reliable recipes from her home in Virginia, where she lives with her husband, three daughters, a chocolate lab, and over thirty chickens.
