Have you eaten your fill of tomatoes – on sandwiches, in Caprese salads, or plucked straight from the vine and consumed like candy? I haven’t, but I can’t stop summer from ending. I want to savor those flavors through fall and winter. That’s where canning and preserving come into play.
If you are putting up tomato sauce for your larder right now, don’t discard the skins from those red orbs. Repurpose them into a powder that offers intense flavor for seasoning meat, potatoes, fries, popcorn and even yogurt. All it takes is a bit of dehydration.
These easy recipes hail from “The Zero Waste Cookbook” by Giovanna Torrico and Amelia Wasiliev (Hardie Grant, 2019). The Tomato Skin Powder is the master recipe. Once you’ve got that done, use the powder as you would dried chiles and savor the concentrated flavor of tomatoes long after summer has ended.
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Tomato Skin Powder
2 1/4 pounds ripe tomatoes
Place the tomatoes in a large heatproof bowl and pour enough boiling water over to cover. Leave for 10 minutes. Peel and reserve the skins and use the pulp as you like. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees. Place the skins on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and dehydrate in the oven for 3 hours. When the skins are completely dry, allow to cool. Store in a sealed jar and grind the dried skins using a mortar and pestle or in a coffee grinder when needed. Grinding the skins as needed will prevent the powder getting damp or clumping up. Makes 1/2 cup.
Per teaspoon: 11 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), trace protein, 3 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, trace fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 5 milligrams sodium.
3 WAYS TO USE TOMATO SKIN POWDER
Recipes excerpted with permission from “The Zero Waste Cookbook” by Giovanna Torrico and Amelia Wasiliev, published by Hardie Grant Books May 2019.
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