When I discovered this summer that one of the plants I bought that I believed was a Roma tomato was actually a Yellow Pear, I was understandably disappointed. Romas are my staple for tomato juice, and Yellow Pears tend to sprawl and take over the garden (I had purchased ONE Yellow Pear tomato plant and this gave me two).
But – I had all these YellowPear tomatoes, and God frowns on people wasting perfectly good food, so I decided to dehydrate some of them in little rounds like I do my Juliette’s. Little did I know that they would come out tasting like sweet yellow candies – how cool is that?
Because drying this type and size of tomato works best without ends (I do the same thing with Juliette’s), I place all of the ends in a jar to refrigerate and use later in a stir fry, egg scramble or fresh salsa and just use the beautiful center part of the tomato for drying.
Each pear tomato produces two of the slices you see on the tray. Do not cut them less than 1/4″ thick or they will be like paper. This size of dried tomato works very well in a trail mix – one of my husband’s favorite ways to eat them – as well. These tomatoes are cut completely raw – no blanching, no dipping in lemon water – and preserve beautifully. They would also look great in a bottle of olive oil next to the stove. Nifty unique gift idea, maybe? Just make sure your dried rounds are completely submerged in the oil and that there are no air bubbles (I tap the bottle gently on the counter to raise bubbles much like you do a cake batter or canning jar).
The Lord abundantly provides, whether or not it is what we thought we purchased! I can’t wait to share these with my neighbor who cannot eat candy but enjoys “sweets.”
Tomatoes are good for you, you know!