I love a DIY when it comes to anything food-related. Homemade mayo, homemade seasonings, homemade relishes, etc. They bring me satisfaction and many also make great food gifts. Today, I am sharing How To Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes. Yum!
I am a a self-proclaimed cookie monster, however, my adoration for tomatoes is just behind cookies. Give me a perfectly rip sun-kissed tomato and I am a happy gal. However a sub par tomato?? I'll pass. We all know tomatoes have their best (and worst) times of the year.
Table of Contents
Why you'll love making sun-dried tomatoes
- Slow-roasting tomatoes to make roasted tomatoes or sun-dried tomatoes brings out the best in them, any time of the year. They become sweet and full of flavor.
- You can enjoy them as-is or doctor them up with garlic, herbs, oils and more.
- When you can make homemade sun-dried tomatoes, you are skipping the additives, herbs, and spices that can mute the flavors after having sat in a jar on a shelf at the store.
- You can control the added sodium.
- Dried up brown sun-dried tomatoes are no fun and often tasteless. Even if you rehydrate them with oil, they don't have that amazing concentrated sweet summer tomato flavor whereas these do.
Ingredients
- Tomatoes (I prefer grape tomatoes)
- Avocado or olive oil
- Salt
I love roasting tomatoes then chilling them for use in salads, as a side or to enjoy on their own like candy. I add them into my favorite Oven Roasted Tomato Soup for added texture and depth.
Sometimes I cook them down further which is where this homemade sun-dried tomatoes recipe comes in.
The tomatoes you see in these photos have been dried (about 75% of moisture removed) and then tossed with grapeseed oil which perked them back up.
I also decided to add fresh minced garlic and freshly shaved Parmesan cheese to them (as you can see in some photos). I honestly ate most of them as is, just off a fork, SOOOO good!
Variations
- Add in fresh or dried herbs.
- Add in more salt and/or black pepper
- For a kick of heat, toss with a little cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.
You can decide how dried out you want your tomatoes to be. I lean towards a little moisture being left in the tomatoes and I do not remove the seeds (you can if you wish).
I never make a huge batch of sun-dried tomatoes or slow roasted tomatoes for that matter. At most, I make 3-4 pints worth and those are then gone in a week. They always disappear.
If you do want to make a lot, after you bake your tomatoes to your desired consistency (remember not like a hard piece of leather, they just won't reconstitute well in my opinion), allow them to cool completely.
How To Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes In Your Oven
- All you need to do is choose your tomatoes (I like using grape tomatoes for this, however, any tomato will work) and roast them in a 250 degrees oven.
- I'm not a fan of leathery and tough tomatoes like you may find in the grocery store (typically not packed in oil). A little chewy is good but not tough. the larger the tomato halves, the longer they will need to cook. you do not want these crispy or hard. I like mine to still be a little moist (75% or so moisture removed), you can choose how you want yours.
What Can You Use Sun-Dried Tomatoes For?
- Perk up a store-bought or homemade pesto with a handful of these sun-dried tomatoes. Use them in pasta dishes or sauces, on pizza, as part of a cheese board or antipasto platter.
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes are delicious in spreads, on salads or sandwiches. You can add sun-dried tomatoes to a homemade tapenade, breakfast frittata or bake them into a bread. The uses are endless!
How To Store Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes?
- If you have a vacuum sealer, place sun dried tomatoes in a small bag and vacuum seal them for maximum freshness.
- Pop them in the freezer until you want to use them. When ready, defrost and then toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, garlic, cheese (or whatever you are in the mood for) and enjoy!
- These tomatoes will keep 12 months in the freezer if vacuum sealed. Up to 6 months if not.
- Sun-dried tomatoes will keep in the fridge, in an air tight mason jar, for a few days IF covered with oil, they will keep in the fridge 3 weeks (plain). Just be sure tomatoes are fully submerged in the oil..
- Do NOT store them for more than a few days IN oil. You don't want to take the chance of bacteria growing.
- Also, if adding minced garlic or herbs like I often do (because YUM), add them in the day you are enjoying the tomatoes. You really don't want the garlic sitting in the oil more than 2 days since that could also breed bacteria.
I hope you enjoy making sun-dried tomatoes (and eating them) as much as I do!! XO Colleen
Originally posted April, 2019. Updated July 2024.
DIY Recipes to try
How To Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 2 pints of grape tomatoes or your choice
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
- Wash and dry your tomatoes.
- Halve them then choose to leave seeds in or out (I leave them in).
- Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet(s) lightly sprayed with baking spray (or lightly oiled with grapeseed or olive oil... I use a paper towel to rub the parchment/tray just a bit with oil).
- Sprinkle with a couple of pinches of salt.
- Bake for 2-2.5 hours, moving them around every 30 minutes or so. If some are still full-looking, press them down a bit with the back of a measuring cup to flatten a bit more. Turn off the oven and allow them to sit in the oven with the door closed until all heat is gone and the oven is cold.
- Cook time will depend on the size of your tomato pieces. as well as your preference for texture. I prefer mine not fully leathery-dry. If you want yours really dry it may take up to 4 hours total depending on the size of your tomatoes.
- You can always lower temperature to 200 as you get closer to the end.
- Once tomatoes are cooled completely, toss them with oil and seasoning if you are using them that day or the next. or use a vacuum sealer and freeze in small batches until ready to use. You can also do your best to get as much air out of a freezer bag as you can if you don't have a vacuum sealer.
- Additional add-ins (when you are ready to enjoy the tomatoes) include minced garlic, fresh basil, rosemary, thyme capers, shredded fresh Parmesan or other hard Italian cheese. However don't add the add ins until they day you will be enjoying.
Tejal Malani says
Can we use cherry tomatoes ??
Colleen says
Absolutely!