I don't know if there is a right or wrong way to make sun dried tomatoes. As the name implies, I'm assuming drying in the sun is a good place to start. I wanted to see if it would really work so I set out to try a tomato drying experiment. I remember back in elementary school we made a sun oven and it actually worked, so I had high hopes for this new sun cooking adventure.
- I started with grape tomatoes and sliced them into tiny pieces. I used small grape tomatoes, but I think you can use any kind of tomato, just make sure to cut it up pretty small.
- I then placed the tomatoes on a tray covered with aluminum foil, making sure the foil was shiny side facing up.
- I left the tray out on the deck, directly in bright sunlight for about 3 hours.Voila, my tomato slices had dried right up – who woulda guessed!
- I then chopped up the tomatoes even more, mixed with some Mayo, spinach, onions and some spices to make a kind of aoli. I then added in a little olive oil to thin the mixture, loaded in some chicken and mixed into some cooked pasta – dinner a la sun!
I think at this point you could use however you'd like. Store for later, add into some kind of meal or sauce of your choice. I was excited to see there wasn't anything fancy I had to do to make this work. They really did taste yummy and didn't take much time.
If you know of a way to make your own sun dried tomatoes, I'd love to hear what you know!
I’m so glad you figured this out — I’d often wondered if there were an easy way to do this.
Gonna try with my next crop!