How do I go about dehydrating a tomato? When ever I do it, it never turns out like the sundried tomatoes you buy at the store. Anyone know how to get them like that? Are they considered raw? What about apples? How do you get them to have the same yummy texture as the ones you purchase at the store? Mine always turn out really gross lol!

Here's a good site for you:

http://www.seasonalchef.com/tomdehyd.htm

I have a dehydrator and so far I've only been successful in making dried apple rings.

Here's a good site for you:

http://www.seasonalchef.com/tomdehyd.htm

I have a dehydrator and so far I've only been successful in making dried apple rings.

Thanks for the site. I am going to try some tomatoes today. I made some zuchini chips that were good. The second time I made them the apples dripped onto them and they turned really gross lol!

How do I go about dehydrating a tomato? When ever I do it, it never turns out like the sundried tomatoes you buy at the store. Anyone know how to get them like that? Are they considered raw? ...

I'm afraid I know very little about raw foods. But I did attend some lectures, and it seems that as long as they are "cooked"/dehydrated at below a certain temperature--which might be something like 107 or 114 degrees F--they are still considered raw.

(Raw food advocates do not use the word "cook" for heating/dehydrating at these low temperatures.)

sundried tomatoes are not the same thing as dehydrated tomatoes. I don't know how they make sun dried tomatoes, but I know you cannot do it in your dehydrator.

apples are great if you slice them really thin, they will get crunchy, bananas the same way. I can sit down and eat those all day long. yellow squash and zucchini squash are both yummy if you slice those up and dry.

many years ago I experimented and put just about anything I could think of in my dehydrator and those were my favorites.

if you have the sheets that go inside your dehydrator, you can also puree and make fruit roll ups. apple sauce makes good fruit roll ups.

"Sundried tomatoes" work best if you make them in a low temp oven. I tried making dried tomatoes in the dehydrator and *yech* they weren't very good. They were ok crumbled on a salad but they were more crunchy than I would have liked.

This works well with a non juicy tomato like Roma or plum tomatoes This may not be considered raw but this is how I was able to obtain "sundried tomato" texture.
Slice tomatoes in thin to medium slices
Dip tomatoes in olive oil
Sprinkle the tomatoes with a bit of sugar (Florida's crystals works brilliantly for this!)
Place them on a cookie sheet in a low temp (150 degrees F) oven 8-12 hours.oven door propped slightly