Nearly everyone enjoys the sweet chewiness of sun-dried tomatoes. Unfortunately, these tomatoes are extremely expensive. With a food dehydrator, you can make your own sun-dried tomatoes and decrease the cost of these delicacies. It will take approximately seven pounds of fresh tomatoes to make a pint of dried tomatoes. The best variety of tomato to use is Roma or plum. They are smaller and more flavorful than the beefsteak tomato. Cut each tomato in half, scrape out all of the seeds, and dry for approximately 8 hours.
If you would like to pack the tomatoes in oil, dip each tomato into vinegar and place in a jar of olive oil. Store in a cool, dark location (you can keep them in the refrigerator). An important thing to note is that if you are storing the tomatoes in oil, do not add garlic to the oil. The garlic causes a chemical reaction which changes the pH of the oil and creates prime conditions for botulism to appear. Botulism is a potentially fatal form of food poisoning, so keep the garlic out of the jar!
A foolproof use of your dehydrator is to dry bread to make crumbs and croutons. A variation on dried bread is to cut seasoned bagels into ΒΌ inch slices and dry until they become crispy bagel chips. If you make homemade pasta, your dehydrator can function as a pasta dryer. Your family will appreciate not having noodles draped over every available surface of the kitchen.
For most people, adding a package of onion soup to a tub of sour cream is as involved as they get with creating a party dip. You can create your own savory mixture with dried onions, peppers, garlic, spinach, herbs, etc. Add the dry ingredients to equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise, yogurt, or cream cheese. Let the dip sit for at least an hour to allow the dried vegetables to soften and the flavors to meld.
