Tomato Skin Spice Blend

A Mrs Dash container filled with my own
Tomato Basil Garlic spice blend.

Once upon a time I had a really good friend who lived next door to me. We hung out all the time, but then she informed me that she was moving back to the US. Bummer.
Before she moved, she was emptying out her apartment and selling whatever she could, because she was only taking what she could fit in her suitcases. As her next door neighbor and close friend, I had the good fortune to inherit a vast majority of her things. Among those stuff were some spice mixes, imported from the US. 2 different types of Mrs Dash seasoning. One of those was their Tomato, Basil, and Garlic spice blend.

According to their site, this seasoning is terrific to use on steaks, chicken, pasta, pizza, and garlic bread, among other things.

But, as with all good things, my supply of Mrs Dash came to an end.

Fortunately, I figured out a way to make an absolutely delicious spice blend reminiscent of Mrs Dash- out of an ingredient that you most likely would throw out anyhow- tomato skins!

When making homemade tomato sauce, or preserving (freezing or canning) whole tomatoes, you’re usually instructed to remove the skins from your tomatoes. The typical method of doing this is dunking the tomatoes in boiling water for up to a few minutes, and then in ice water. The skin should just slip right off. I generally do it a bit differently and steam the whole tomatoes until the skin slips off easily.

With these tomato skins, instead of tossing them in the trash or compost, you can make a really yummy spice, with no special equipment needed.

Instructions:
1. Take your tomato skins and lay them flat on a cookie sheet, not overlapping each other at all. You want to either use a silicon baking sheet, parchment paper, wax paper, or aluminum foil. Do not grease the cookie sheet.

2. Turn your oven on to the lowest setting possible, or around 200 degrees.

3. Put the cookie sheet in the oven, and close the door, propping it open a bit. I usually wedge a wooden spoon handle between the oven door and the oven so that it is closed almost all the way. You’ll be dehydrating your tomato skins, and you want to leave that space to give the moisture a way to leave.

4. Leave the tomato skins in your oven until they are completely dry- this can take anywhere from 8 to 16 hours, depending on how many tomato skins you’re drying, whether or not your oven has a fan in it, how much the door is left ajar, among other things. Just keep on checking the tomatoes to make sure there is no moistness remaining and that they’re completely dry and you’re able to crack them.
They should look like this when they’re dry.

5. Peel all your tomato skins off your cookie trays.

6. Put your dried tomato skins in the food processor or coffee grinder. Blend up until they’re as small as they can get. You’ll get something that looks like this, with some pieces a bit more powdery and some more like little flakes.

7. This tomato skin spice is actually quite strongly flavored; use it to add a tomato flavor wherever you desire even now.

8. I prefer to make mine reminiscent of Mrs Dash’s Tomato Basil Garlic seasoning blend. No exact measurements here, but mix 4 parts tomato skin spice with 2 parts basil, 1 part minced or powdered garlic, and 1 part salt. Shake it well, and use.

This tastes totally awesome on pizza, by the way! Much better than that uber unhealthy pizza spice that they sell, laden with msg and who knows what else…

Do you ever use recipes that call for skinning tomatoes? Do you generally skin them or just skip that step? If you skin your tomatoes, do you do anything with the skins or just toss/compost them? If you do something with them, what do you do?
Do you think you’d try out this recipe?
Do you Mrs Dash’s seasoning blends ever? Which type is your favorite kind, and what is your favorite way to use it?

Linking up to Mangia Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Make Your Own Monday, Sunday School, Weekend Gourmet, Meatless Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Monday Mania,