We’ve had a warm fall so far so the tomatoes just keep coming. This is an easy and delicious way to preserve fresh tomatoes. Sun-dried tomatoes make a great addition to salads, pastas and wraps but these are so good you’ll want to eat them like raisins as a snack. I like using cherry tomatoes because they dry relatively quickly and since you can dry them skin side down, they don’t get sticky. You can  use Roma tomatoes cut in half, they will just take much longer. If you dry slices of larger tomatoes, you will want to lay them on foil so they don’t stick to your baking sheet.

When temperatures are hot enough you can dry them outside in the sun on a wire rack. Use cheese cloth raised on bricks so it doesn’t stick to the tomatoes to keep the bugs and birds off and bring them in at night. I did this when temperatures were hovering around 100*F and it took 2 days for my cherry tomatoes to dry. Larger tomatoes can take between 4 days and 2 weeks depending on conditions. But the fastest and easiest way to make sun-dried tomatoes (if you don’t own a dehydrator) is in the oven.

Oven Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients: 

Cherry Tomatoes

Sea Salt

Coconut or Date Sugar

Fresh Thyme Leaves

Olive Oil (optional)

Turn oven to 150*. Cut tomatoes in half and place skin side down onto a baking sheet so they are close but not touching. Lightly sprinkle with salt, sugar and thyme leaves and place them in the oven for approximately 2 hours until dry and chewy. Once cooled, transfer them to a Jar and cover with oil if desired. Refrigerate and use within 8 months for optimal taste. Enjoy!