Tomato Powder

   Once upon a time, a truck used to come around in the area where we lived. The name on the truck was 'Charle's Chips'. I remember the chips came in a big can, and the best flavored ones were the barbecue ones.

   I have always tried to emulate food I like. Then I convert it into a healthful, nourishing recipe, if possible.

   It took years for me to figure out how to make the powder that goes on barbecue potato chips, but now, alas, I have my answer.

   This long, sought after secret was in an ingredient called, 'tomato powder'. The good thing about tomato powder is that you can use it on other things than potato chips. I use mine for chicken, fish, and potatoes. It kind of looks like paprika, so now I can use tomato powder in place of paprika.

Homemade Tomato Powder

   Here is how you make it:

Take about 3-5 good sized tomatoes, and put them in a crock pot or slow cooker. Turn on high for about an hour. They are ready to use to make tomato sauce with when the skin begins to crack. Turn off the slow cooker and let cool (unless you are in a hurry).

 Once cooled, peel the skins off and set aside (do not throw away). Puree the tomatoes. Put the pureed tomatoes in a jar and either freeze or keep refrigerated. Use in any recipe calling for tomato sauce.

   Now take the tomato skins and let dry. You can turn the oven on warm, or whatever the lowest temperature is and put the tomato skins in the oven to dry. Make sure you put the skins on a glass or metal pan or plate. You can also dehydrate them in a food dehydrator.

   It is recommended to turn the tomato skins occasionally, as I have found that as they dry, they tend to stick to whatever surface they are drying on. When they are fully dried, they can be ground into a powder form by putting them in a blender or food processor. If you really want a lot of tomato powder and need it in a hurry, do this recipe with several tomatoes. The more dried tomato skins there are in the blender, the better the grind will be.

   The sauce came from a recipe in the book, 'Square Foot Gardening Cookbook'. If you don't need the sauce part of this recipe, just give it to a neighbor or friend! But I can't imagine cooking too many things without using tomato sauce!



I would like to give credit to those who I learned from on how to make tomato powder, but unfortunately, I went to several web sites when I was researching this and found all this info on it. Now I don't remember where those web sites are, but I am grateful to those who taught others on the web, how to make tomato powder.

  Did you know that tomatoes contain an ingredient called 'lycopene'? The more lycopene a tomato has, the better it is for you. Cooked tomatoes are actually very good for protection from prostate cancer. Black Krim tomatoes have the greatest amount of lycopene in them. (Black Krim tomatoes are an heirloom tomato that is dark in color).