How to Freeze Dry Tomatoes

Learn how to freeze dry tomatoes to preserve that fresh from the garden flavor for years to come. Freeze dried tomato powder is perfect to grab to make juice, sauce, or paste.

In the past, canning tomatoes was my first choice for preserving my tomato harvest.  I have since made a big switch and freeze drying has become my new favorite method to keep tomatoes on my shelf for years to come.

In my opinion, freeze drying tomatoes is so much easier and more efficient than canning tomatoes. 

• Minimal tools needed – I only have to dirty a knife, cutting board, and some freeze dryer trays.  
• I can do it any time of the day – I literally can add tomatoes to a tray even if I only have 5 minutes.  Canning tomatoes take well over an hour by the time you are done.
• I can make whatever product I want – With tomato powder, it’s like having 3 products in 1 – tomato paste, tomato sauce, and tomato juice!

How to Freeze Dry Tomatoes

When you have an abundance of tomatoes to harvest, this is one of the quickest and easiest methods to preserve them.

Ways to Use Freeze Dried Tomatoes

You can use freeze dried tomatoes the same way as you would use any diced tomato or tomato sauce. The possibilities are endless.

• Soups and Stews – To use, simply add sliced or diced tomatoes to soups, stews, chili, etc.  They will reconstitute in the liquid wonderfully and add that fresh from the garden flavor.
• Sauce – Mix together the proper ratio of tomato powder to water, to have a delicious sauce.  Use this in spaghetti sauce, goulash, pizza sauce, and lasagna.  Add herbs and spices like you normally would when making these.
• Paste – Reconstitute tomato powder with a little water to have the most flavorful tomato paste.  You can make as little or as much as you need. 
• Juice – Reconstitute tomato powder with more water to make a delicious tomato juice.
• Sliced Tomatoes – I have heard that sliced tomatoes don’t taste the same as a fresh picked tomato.  They tend to get mealy if you soak them in water.  If you’re looking to add a slice of tomato to your sandwich, try putting it on dry.  The liquid from the meat and lettuce, should be enough to moisten the tomato, without needing to soak it.                                           

Ingredients Needed

Whether you grow your own tomatoes, purchase them from the farmers market, or a wonderful friend shares some of their bounty with you, freeze drying is the perfect way to preserve them.

Fresh or Frozen Tomatoes – Either will work great from freeze drying.

• Fresh Tomatoes – Simply wash, dry well, and slice, dice, or blend until smooth.
• Frozen Tomatoes – Every year my garden produces an abundance of food, and when it all needs to be harvested at the end of the season before it freezes, I wind up with a bit of overwhelm in my kitchen. To avoid having to deal with all of the tomatoes at once, I wash and dry them well. Remove any green tops, and core and remove any bad spots. Then I will choose to either put them into bags and freeze whole or blend into a sauce to freeze.
  • To use frozen tomatoes, thaw the whole bag in a baking dish. Blending works better than trying to dice the tomatoes after they have been frozen and then thawed.
  • Continue with the freeze drying process the same as if you were using fresh tomatoes.

Supplies Needed to Freeze Dry Tomatoes

Let’s quickly cover everything that you will need to freeze dry tomatoes at home. You can find a printable version at the end of the post.

• Freeze Dryer – I purchased my freeze dryer from Harvest Right in 2021. I have a medium 4 tray Freeze Dryer. They have now updated this model to hold 5 trays.
• Oil or Oil Free Pump – When you purchase a freeze dryer, you will get a pump too.  The pump is the key to freeze drying foods.  This kicks on to pull the moisture out of the food. I chose the Premier Industrial Pump.
• Freeze Dryer Trays – I actually have 2 full sets of trays for my freeze dryer.  One set is in the freeze dryer and one set is in the freezer filled with food ready to be dried.  Homesteading Tip: Each freeze dryer has a set of trays that fit that specific machine.  Make sure you purchase the ones that fit your machine.
• Freeze Dryer Lids (optional) – I didn’t have a set of lids for my first year, but since investing in them, I now wonder what took me so long!  I highly recommend grabbing a set of lids right away, so you can stack the trays in your freezer.  The lids also double as trays with dividers to freeze dry food in.
• Freeze Dryer Silicone Mats (optional) – Harvest Right carries silicone mats that fit onto your trays and make clean-up quick and easy.  
• A Good Knife – You have a couple options here.
  •  If you would like to cut tomatoes into slices to freeze dry, I recommend using a good, serrated tomato knife.
  • If you would like to dice the tomatoes to freeze dry, you can use a tomato knife, or you can dice them in a food processor.
  • If you would like to turn the tomatoes into a powder, I recommend blending them into a sauce before you freeze dry them.
• Cutting Board – If cutting with a knife, I like to use a good wooden cutting board like this one.
• Tomato Corer – I always grab a tomato corer whenever I am handling tomatoes.  This tool works so much better than any knife.
• Canning Funnel – A good stainless steel canning funnel is a staple item that every kitchen should have.  I use this for transferring freeze dried food into jars, as well as into Mylar bags.
• Metal Spatula – Use a metal spatula to remove the tomatoes from the trays.
• Food Processor or a Blender – Even if you blend the tomatoes into sauce before you put it into the freeze dryer trays, you will still need to give it a couple of pulses in a food processor or blender before you put it away for storage. 
• Mylar Bags – These are the bags needed to protect your freeze dried food for long term storage.  I purchase Mylar bags directly through Harvest Right or the quart sized ones and the gallon sized ones that I purchase through my favorite company – Azure Standard.  I do have all three sizes in my freeze drying supply tote, but if you had to start with just one, I would suggest the Harvest Right ones.  They are about 2 quarts worth and usually will hold a full tray of my freeze dried food well, plus I got some included when I purchased my freeze dryer from Harvest Right.
• Oxygen Absorbers – Oxygen absorbers are placed into the Mylar bags before sealing.  I purchase the ones that fit the Harvest Right bags here, the quart sized ones here, and the gallon sized ones here.
• An Impulse Sealer – This is the sealer that you will need to seal Mylar bags for long term storage.  Mine came with my Harvest Right Freeze Dryer.
• Canning Jars -You can store your freeze dried food in quart canning jars or in half gallon sized jars for short term storage, up to a year.
• Canning Lids – Canning lids will be used on the canning jars when storing your food short term.
• FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer – You will need a FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer to use with the FoodSaver Jar Sealer.  These work together to vacuum the oxygen out of canning jars for short term storage of your freeze dried foods.
• FoodSaver Jar Sealer – Another must have tool for your kitchen.  I recommend that you have a wide mouth and regular mouth jar sealer to vacuum the air out of the jars of freeze dried food and make them shelf stable for a year.
• Permanent Marker – You can never have to many permanent markers.  Make sure you label everything! 
• Freezer – I use my chest freezer to pre-freeze foods before placing them into my freeze dryer.  It makes the freeze drying process a lot quicker, because you can save hours by having everything frozen before you fill your machine.  This also works well to always have your extra set of trays filled and ready to place into your machine after the defrosting process.

How to Freeze Dry Tomatoes

Well, it’s time to start freeze drying tomatoes! Remember that you can find all of the instructions in the printable at the end of the post.

5. Slice, dice, or blend the tomatoes and place onto a freeze dryer tray that fits inside of your machine.  Do not overfill the trays.  Only fill them in a single layer diced or sliced, and no more than half full of tomato sauce.

6. This one is important, in my experience pre-freezing the tomatoes is the only way to go.  The tomatoes on the left in the picture above, were frozen when they went into my freeze dryer.  The tomatoes on the right were put into my freeze dryer raw.

Now, my freeze dryer will freeze the food as the first step in the freeze drying process, but first of all it takes a lot longer to complete the freeze drying process.  And secondly as you can see in the picture, without freezing first, when the pump kicked on, the tomatoes exploded a little and made a big mess inside of my machine.  This will happen when freeze drying foods that have a lot of moisture like tomatoes.    

I have an extra set of trays and lids, and always freeze tomatoes first.  My deep freeze is already running, and it makes the freeze drying process a lot quicker.

7. Place all of the trays into the freeze dryer and follow the instructions on the screen.

8. When the process is complete and before defrosting your machine, make sure the tomatoes are dried all the way.  Feel them to make sure that no moisture remains and none of them are gummy. If they are gummy, continue drying them for another 2 hours and check again. Repeat this until everything is completely dried.

9. After you remove the trays, defrost your freeze dryer or open the door and let it defrost naturally.

10. Remove the tomatoes from the trays and place the food into short or long term storage.

Homesteading Tip – If you have done another method of preserving tomatoes and have skins and seeds remaining, don’t waste them.  In the photo above, I have put them on a tray and freeze dried them.  Then grind them to a fine powder and use as you would any other tomato powder.

How to Store Freeze Dried Tomatoes

You can store your freeze dried tomatoes in one of two ways; short term storage or long term storage.

• Short term storage – Anything you will use within a year.  This can be stored in a jar, vacuum sealed, and placed on your shelf.
• Long term storage – Anything you want to store for a year to 20+ years.  This should be stored in a Mylar bag with an oxygen absorber.

Here is a picture of an heirloom yellow variety that I freeze dried.  These are called Dad’s Sunset tomatoes.  I love planting heirloom seeds in my garden.

Short term storage – store in a glass canning jar:

1. Wash and dry your jars and canning lids.  Homesteading Tip – This is one way I would recommend reusing your canning lids.  Make sure they are in nice shape without any dents, and you can reuse them lots of times for freeze dried food storage.  I used to always dent my lids when removing them until my son bought me this can opener for my birthday.  I highly recommend getting one!
2. Use a funnel to fill jars with your sliced, diced or powdered tomatoes.
3. Seal the lid with your FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer and FoodSaver Jar Sealer.
4. Label the jars with your permanent marker. Trust me, even if you can see what is in there, label the lid with the contents and the date which they were made.
5. Store them away from direct sunlight, moisture, and oxygen (this is why I use the jar sealer).

Here are the Dad’s Sunset tomatoes that I blended and added to my red powder.  I have a wonderful time making tomato powder sand art! Ha!

Long term storage – store in a Mylar bag:

1. Grab your bags, a funnel, a permanent marker, oxygen absorbers, and an impulse sealer.
2. Label the bags first before adding any food.  Write the contents, any quick notes on rehydrating, and the date.
3. Use the funnel to fill the bags with your sliced, diced or powdered tomatoes.
4. Add the properly sized oxygen absorbers to each bag.
5. Make sure that the tomatoes are all at the bottom of the bag.  Do not overfill.  Use the impulse sealer to seal the bags.  I usually seal them twice to be on the safe side.
6. Store them for 20+ years by properly sealing them with the oxygen absorbers, placing them out of direct sunlight, and storing them away from moisture.

Homesteading Tip – I place all of my Mylar bags with freeze dried food in plastic totes.  Label the outside of the tote to easily grab what you are looking for.

How to Rehydrate Freeze Dried Tomato Powder

Technically you should number and weigh the trays before you put them into the freeze dryer.  Then weigh them again when they are finished freeze drying.  Take the difference and that is the amount of water to add back to that tray to fully reconstitute.  Divide that number by how many servings on a tray to get smaller ratio portions.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time to keep track of which tray is which, much less remember how much water needs to be added to each tray.

Here’s a good rule of thumb that I use when rehydrating my tomatoes:

Tomato Paste – 1:1 ratio ~ Add one part tomato powder to one part of water.

Tomato Sauce – 1:2 ratio ~ Add one part of tomato powder to two parts of water.

Tomato Juice – 1:4 ratio ~ Add one part of tomato powder to four parts of water.

Adjust these ratios to your preference.

Common Questions

I get a lot of questions about freeze drying food. Here are a few common questions and their answers to help you out!

More Food to Freeze Dry Next

Freeze Dried Eggs

Freeze Dried Pancake Batter

Freeze Dried Strawberries

My freeze dryer is a tool I never want to be without, especially when the garden harvest starts rolling into the house. I hope that you give it a try. Leave me a comment below to let me know your thoughts.

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