Tomato Powder

Tomato powder is made from dried tomato. You can use it as a garnish, or as an ingredient.

You can buy it, or make it at home.

How to make tomato powder at home

• From whole tomatoes: wash, core, slice, and de-seed tomatoes.
• From tomato skins: press excess water out of peels.
• Spread skins or tomato slices out on dehydrator trays. Follow temperature and time guidelines for your dehydrator model. (In the range of 8 to 12 hrs at 125 F / 50 C; time will vary by humidity in your area and how well you space out the skins on the drying trays.)
• When thoroughly dry, pulverise in food processor to a coarse grind.
• Then take that and grind in an electric coffee mill to a fine powder.

If using whole tomatoes, ideally use plum tomatoes: you’ll get the most powder. If using cherry tomatoes, just cut in half.

To de-seed tomatoes, with your fingers or a spoon just scoop out the seed gel in middle of tomato, and discard. You don’t need to worry about getting every last seed. Most people say not to bother seeding cherry tomatoes.

Some people suggest that for the finest powders, freeze your dried tomato slices or skins first, and put them in the food processor frozen. The idea is that they will shatter.

If you sundried your tomato slices or skins, then you definitely want to freeze them for about a week first, to kill off any bug eggs that might have got laid in them. (This shouldn’t be a concern if you used a dehydrator.)

Some people report that they burn out electric coffee mills by trying to skip the food processor step. Let the food processor with its heavier engine do the hardest part of this first.

You can experiment with a small quantity of tomatoes in the winter to see if you are going to like this, but it really does not make any sense economically to try to make this in any volume from tomatoes at all until tomatoes are in season.

You can make also tomato powder from tinned tomato paste: spread it out on parchment paper on dehydrator trays, then dry, then grind. If you really want to make tomato powder out of season, this method might make more sense than starting from fresh tomatoes.

Tomato powder from food mill pomace?

If you are using a food mill to make another tomato product, such as sauce, the food mill will spit out a “pomace” of skin and seeds. If we were dealing with grapes here, you might have the start of a very nice grappa. However, it’s tomato residue, and there are a few reasons why you might not want to try to make tomato powder from that. None of the reasons have to do with safety: instead, it’s quality reasons.

Drying that pomace with the seeds and then grinding it into tomato powder is going to result in a powder with a bitter edge to most people’s taste. If you think you won’t mind that bitter edge, fine. But remember that you are looking at an abnormally high concentration of seeds, and the pulp that would normally counterbalance their flavour is gone. ^[1]In general, most of the population have found tomato seeds to add displeasing bitter notes to a tomato product, which is why they are often filtered out of many tomato products. If this were not the case, industrial food manufacturers would almost certainly leave them in to bulk out their tomato sauce products. Perhaps people who don’t mind the seeds tend to be people who have a capacity for appreciating bitter tastes.

Most people pass the pomace through the food mill once or twice, to extract maximum value from it. Food quality wise, there is really not going to be much left in it to work with. You will not get a high quality tomato powder. Some might argue that using just the skins instead of the whole tomato already is pushing it; but to squeeze all flavour out of those skins and then try to make a food product from them, could be the equivalent of trying to make coffee from coffee grounds that have already been used once, or twice. You can absolutely do it, but people might not rave about your coffee.

Making tomato powder out of season

Take tinned tomatoes, purée in blender or food processor. Spread out on parchment paper on dehydrator racks and make a tomato leather by drying until crisp. Then break into pieces and grind to a powder.  (Src: Preserving Food – Recipes. UCCE Master Food Preservers of Amador/Calaveras County. Class handout, July 2016. Page 4.)

Tomato powder equivalents

Dried skins from 6 dozen large Romas = 120 grams in weight (3 quarts / litres in volume) = 2 cups coarsely ground = 1 cup / 120 g finely ground.

1 dozen large Roma tomatoes = 20 g of dried skins = 20 g finely ground tomato powder

22 kg (50 lbs) large Roma tomatoes = 8 Excalibur trays of tomato skins before drying = 3 quarts / litres volume of dried skins = 4 cups / 300 g / 10.5 oz of finely-ground tomato powder

1 tablespoon tomato powder = .75 g = .26 oz

Substitutes for tomato powder

In some recipes, such as backpacking recipes, instant tomato soup powder can make an acceptable substitute. Just bear in mind that the soup powder will likely contain its own salt, so hold off on any other salt the recipe calls for until you have tasted the item you are making.

Using tomato powder

• Add to a vinaigrette salad dressing;
• Sprinkle on slices of winter greenhouse tomatoes to enhance taste. Let stand 10 minutes before serving;
• Add to barbeque sauces;
• Use in dry rubs;
• Sprinkle over chicken or fish before roasting or grilling;
• Add to meatloaf and meatball mixtures;
• Fold into a quiche or soufflé mixture;
• Add as a seasoning to soups and stews;
• Use as a coating for vegetables that you are going to roast;
• Use as a seasoning at the table to sprinkle over pasta, rice, vegetables;
• Mix one to one with a powdered cheese such as parmesan to make a popcorn topping or sprinkle on cobs of corn.

Recipes

Tomato Paste

4 tablespoons tomato powder

4 tablespoons hot water

¼ teaspoon salt OR salt sub (optional)

Equals a 6 oz can

Don’t want a whole can? Mix 1 part powder to 1 part water to make the custom quantity you need.

Tomato Sauce

4 tablespoons tomato powder

125 ml hot water (½ cup / 4 oz / 8 tablespoons)

¼ teaspoon salt OR salt sub (optional)

Equals 8 oz can

Pizza Sauce

4 tablespoons tomato powder

125 ml hot water (½ cup / 4 oz / 8 tablespoons)

¼ teaspoon salt OR salt sub (optional)

1 teaspoon sugar OR few drops liquid stevia OR sweetener of your choice

Seasonings to taste: oregano, basil, garlic, powdered onion, powdered garlic, etc.

Equals 8 oz can

Crushed Tomato Substitute

4 tablespoons tomato powder

175 ml hot water (¾ cup / 6 oz)

¼ teaspoon salt OR salt sub (optional)

In a recipe, will have taste impact equivalent to a 16 oz tin of crushed tomatoes that have been simmered down a bit.

Tomato Juice

2 to 4 tablespoons tomato powder

250 ml hot water (1 cup / 8 oz)

¼ teaspoon salt OR salt sub (optional, or other seasoning as desired)

[For smaller amounts for recipes etc, use 1 tablespoon tomato powder per 4 tablespoons hot water]

Cup of tomato soup

2 tablespoons tomato powder

250 ml cold water (1 cup / 8 oz)

Seasonings: onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper

Directions:

• Put ingredients in a microwave-safe jug or bowl at least double the size of the mixture.
• Whisk.
• Zap for 1 minute.
• Whisk again.
• Zap for 2 minutes or until piping hot.

Want cream of tomato soup? Before heating, mix in a tablespoon of SOS mix.

Tomato Parmesan Powder

See here for recipe.

Commercial Tomato Powder

Commercially, tomato powder seems to largely be made from whole tomatoes.

Manufacturing techniques vary. The tomatoes may be sliced, and dried, then ground. Or, it may be made in a way similar to how powdered milk is made, with tomato pulp being forced through either heated spray nozzles or atomizing wheels that remove water and leave just particles of tomato behind. One study we read said: “In order to preserve the tomato powder colour and good reconstitution properties, the use of an atomisation speed of 25,000 rpm and an inlet temperature of 200ºC is recommended.” ^[2]Sousa, Alexandre Santos de, Borges, Soraia Vilela, Magalhães, Natália Ferreira, Ricardo, Hevandro Vaz, & Azevedo, Aline Damico. (2008). Spray-dried tomato powder: reconstitution properties and colour. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 51(4), 607-614. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-89132008000400019

Spray drying techniques may require additives: “Fruit powder is hygroscopic and requires drying agents such as starch, Arabic gum and maltodextrin for making spray dried powders.” ^[3]International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2013 1ISSN 2250-3153. www.ijsrp.org. Spray drying parameters for the maximum recovery of fruit powder from different tomato varieties grown in Dindigul District. Abubacker Siddick.S, Dr. Ganesh .S

Even non-commercial versions may have an anticaking agent such as E551 added.

[To be clear: we are not implying that any of these additional ingredients are bad.]

Commercial varieties can be expensive: they may cost as much as 7 bucks US per 20 g bottle (2017 prices.)

Tomato Powder Nutrition

The following information is from MyFitnessPal. We’re presuming the information is for powder made from whole tomato.

Per 1 tablespoon / 7.5 g / .26 oz

• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 to 2 tablespoons, 1 point.
• Weight Watchers SmartPoints®: 1 point, 2 tablespoons 2 points.

We are aware that there are various claims being made about the health benefits of tomato powder, but we’re also aware that the research is evolving and that it’s early days yet on the topic. Our focus is culinary.

* Nutrition info provided by MyFitnessPal

* PointsPlus™ and SmartPoints™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® registered trademarks.

Further reading

UCCE Master Food Preservers of Orange County. How to Use Dehydrated Tomatoes. https://ucanr.edu/sites/MFPOC/Food_Preservation/Tomatoes/How_to_Use_Dehydrated_Tomatoes/