March 28, 2020

Making Tomato Powder for Your Food Storage

By Joseph Parish

Whenever a survivalist considers starting their food storage plans one of the more important considerations that they must take into account is the amount of space that is available. Without adequate space one cannot properly store a sufficient quantity of needed food supplies.

I have found that the best way to store food is in a dehydrated manner. Dehydrated foods take up less space and can be quickly re-constituted when it is needed. No refrigeration is required for these foods and their long-life span contributes greatly to their value towards emergency food supplements.

After noticing the prices of dehydrated foods, it rapidly hits home that we should be making a lot of our own products as opposed to purchasing them. Every time I look at the prices of dehydrated foods in the market place I rush home and take out my food dehydrated to make something else. It is best that we build up a sufficient supply of the foods that we use and not those that may be available but no one in the family ever eats them. That is simply wasteful.

One of the most useful dehydrated foods that I have found is tomato powder. It can be re-hydrated for use as tomato sauce or as a seasoning for a variety of different dishes. In the event that you are growing your own tomatoes this year you might wish to consider planting some of the Brandywine varieties as they make the best dried tomato powder you can find.

When you dehydrate your tomatoes, you may wish to consider keeping it in a salt shaker. When filling the shaker, you should add 3 parts of the tomato powder to 1 part of salt. Stored in this manner it contributes a great bonus flavor to your morning eggs or as a mixture to flavor oils or dressings. You can add it to the top of baked bread for an additional zest in flavor or as a spice on your evening rice or baked potatoes. You can also use it for your Sunday spaghetti sauce. The uses for this practical item are just about endless.

When you make the powder, you will want to squeeze every last bit of juice from the tomato. In the end if you are left with only pulp then you know you did your job properly. Although you could dry the pulp you will find that most of the flavor is bound within the juice itself. The pulp is actually what we will be drying and ultimately powdering while the juice can be employed for anything that you would normally use the juice for.

Keep in mind that you will need to break the dried tomato leathers down very fine or you risk damaging your food processor. If you add canned tomato paste to your powder mix you will quite likely find that it dries with the consistency of mortar. It can destroy your kitchen appliances if you are not careful. It is best to break it up into small bits and powder it slowly a little at a time.