Tomato Flake & Powder - Dehydrating Tomato Skins

     Processing a lot of tomatoes this Summer?  Why not take a few extra steps and treat yourself to an overlooked by-product of tomatoes!  When you blanch or roast your tomatoes for your various canning or cooking projects - make sure to give your tomatoes a good wash in a white vinegar & water bath...that removes any debris and dirty bits from the skins, once tomatoes are then blanched or roasted and you have the skins - save them!  I place mine in a large Ziplock bag as I go along and keep in the refrigerator.  I then lay the skins out flat on my dehydrator trays and dry until crisp.  We do not have much (if any) humidity here so this takes me about 3-4 hours on the highest heat setting.  IF you don't have a dehydrator - place skins in a single layer, flat on parchment paper on a baking sheet and dehydrate in your oven at 200F for about 2-3 hours.   
     Once the skins are crisp and dry, place them in the bowl of a food processor and whirl until you get your tomato flakes as small as the processor will let you...IF at this time you think your flakes feel "damp" - place back in the oven on parchment paper for 60 minutes at the 200F until your flakes are completely dry.  Once dried, let the flakes cool and place in an airtight container for use as flakes.  IF you want to go one step further and get tomato powder - take the flakes and fill a spice grinder with them and process into a finer powder.  I process mine into half flakes, half powder... 

Enjoy! Diane