Turn tomatoes into a fun tomato chip snack in minutes. No oven or dehydrator necessary!

I smuggled these tomatoes some 2,700 miles across the country on Saturday.

They went from a tomato field in California on Friday to my kitchen and subsequently, my mouth, yesterday.

If you’ve ever flown to San Francisco from somewhere east, you’ve probably seen that huge swatch of farm land with its perfectly straight lines and symmetrical plots from the airplane window right before you cross over the mountains and into the Bay area.

Tomato Chips | runningtothekitchen.com
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It looks like a whole lot of nothingness and it kind of is.

Minus the one little fact that what’s growing in those fields below happens to feed a substantial amount of our country.

That’s where I was Friday as I toured family peach and tomato farms that work with Del Monte.

Tomato Chips | runningtothekitchen.com

As we stood in the 90 degree heat and blazing sun listening to the Pereira family tell us about growing and harvesting tomatoes, I picked up a perfectly good tomato that had rolled into the irrigation ditch and would therefore be passed up by the harvesting machine, rubbed it off on my shirt and took a bite out of it.

It was like biting into pure sunlight.

Sweet, juicy and the definition of fresh.

So when they offered us paper bags to fill up and take with us as we left, I filled up as many as I thought I would fit in my suitcase and was determined to get those tomato babies home with me in one piece.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7435/9592448081_04581942e5_o.jpg

When I got to the airport (ridiculously early with 1.5 hours to kill) Saturday morning, I walked over to the Hudson News store to glance through a few magazines.

I’m that person that reads magazines in a store and doesn’t buy them.

As I flipped through Food Network magazine, I saw this spread on vegetable chips. Tomato chips being one of them.

Then I read the directions and it said MICROWAVE.

Not oven, not dehydrator…microwave.

I don’t own a dehydrator, I hate turning the oven on in the summer, I like chips and I’m not one of those people who thinks the microwave is going to kill me. 

If you are, you might want to move on from this post or try them in the air fryer. You can use the method in my air fryer zucchini chip recipe as a guide.

So, I snapped a pic with my phone and came home on a mission.

Tomato Chips | runningtothekitchen.com

Et voila – it worked! Tomato chips with hardly any effort!

They’re like sun-dried tomatoes, minus the whole sun part and a bit crispier.

Douse them in salt, spice them up however you want, use them with some goat cheese sandwiched in between (<—yes, do that) or, as dippers for delicious things like vegan spinach artichoke dip or roasted eggplant dip.

Microwaved tomato chips. Who freakin’ knew?

Looking for a sweet chip instead? Air fryer apple chips are the perfect snack for that!

More vegetable chip recipes to try:
Jicama Chips with Citrus Herb Seasoning
Mediterranean Eggplant Chips
Rosemary Sea Salt and Vinegar Beet Chips
Pizza Kale Chips
Crispy Baked Carrot Chips

4.77 from 65 votes

Tomato Chips

Servings: 2 servings
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 8 minutes
Total: 28 minutes
Turn tomatoes into a fun tomato chip snack in minutes. No oven or dehydrator necessary!

Ingredients 

  • 2 large firm tomatoes, sliced thinly (about 1/16th of an inch)
  • kosher salt
  • cooking spray

Instructions 

  • Lay sliced tomatoes on a cutting board.
  • Sprinkle generously with salt, let sit for 15 minutes.
  • Pat the tomatoes with a paper towel to soak up the moisture.
  • Flip the tomatoes, re-salt and let sit for another 5 minutes.
  • Repeat the process with the paper towel.
  • Spray a flat, microwaveable plate with cooking spray (I used olive oil spray)
  • Arrange the tomato slices on the plate and spray them with cooking spray.
  • Microwave for 5 minutes on power level 7. (see note)
  • Remove the plate from the microwave, carefully flip the tomatoes and microwave for another minute.
  • Remove from the microwave, transfer the tomatoes which should be mostly dry and crisp at this point to a cooling rack.

Notes

*My microwave has 10 power levels. I reduced it to 7 from 10 for this. If you can’t adjust your power levels, just check the tomatoes during the initial 5 minutes. They should be starting to dry and stiffen by the end of the time period. It might be shorter or longer depending on your microwave.
Lightly adapted from Food Network magazine.

Nutrition

Serving: 1SERVINGCalories: 34kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 2gSodium: 300mgFiber: 2gSugar: 5g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Snacks
Cuisine: American
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Founder and Writer at Running to the Kitchen | About

Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.

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Recipe Rating




4.77 from 65 votes (62 ratings without comment)

35 Comments

  1. The tomatoes pictured appear to be Roma, which are the meatiest and least watery of all varieties. That would make all the difference in the world to the finished product.

  2. I also found that my microwave took a lot longer, but as you said, microwaves vary. I wonder also if it could be effected by the type of tomato you use, some are seedier and waterier than others. I used a beefsteak which are very wet, so maybe it’s down to that. But I absolutely loved the finished product, it’s brilliant! Thanks for the wonderful “recipe”

  3. I’ve been trying to make these for like two hours now. I cook and experiment a lot with recipes online so I know sometimes recipes just take a little extra effort to perfect but for god sake! Out of the five tomatoes I’ve sliced and dried, I’ve only been able to salvage nine chips. They are either too soggy or turn black even though they’re the correct consistency. My microwave is newish and I’ve been watching closely to adjust the time more and the power level too. It’s a waste of tomatoes and I wouldn’t recommend trying.

    1. Sorry they didn’t work out for you, Jen. I got a few black ones in the beginning too but that just seemed to mean I had overcooked them in the microwave and too soggy was just slightly undercooked, it took a few tries to get the right amount of time. I know everyones microwave is slightly different so it’s hard to give exact times that will work across the board.

      1. Thank you so much for this. Although I also couldn’t achieve a crispy consistency, despite increasing cooking time considerably, I’m nonetheless very happy with the deliciously intense sun-dried flavour!
        I wondered if its maybe because the tomatoes were too juicy? Its almost the end of a long & sunny summer here in the UK (yes, it does happen) & my garden varieties are exceptionally ripe & sweet.
        Anyway, my budget at the moment doesn’t stretch to jars of sun-dried but I can now make my own cheap version!

  4. What a fun and healthy way to eat tomatoes! I would never have guessed to eat them as chip, this is a genius idea!

  5. Really liked the name of your site and was excited to read about the tomato chip recipe……but I never did read it. I didn’t mind dismissing the banner ad that ran across the page once. It reappeared twice more as I scrolled down the page. I was anticipating bookmarking the site, but there are too many ads.

    1. Hi MaryLou- Thanks for stopping by, I’m sorry the ads disturbed your experience on the site. If you were on a computer, there’s not supposed to be any sort of fly-over ads on my site (especially not reappearing ones!) so I really apologize about that. I wish I knew what it looked like so I could figure out where it’s coming from and make sure it stops. I do have sidebar ads and while there are a few they should never disturb the content. If you feel so inclined (and remember), please let me know what kind of banner/pop up happened while you were on the site.

  6. Really disappointed by these. Followed the instructions to a T but they came out awful. There definitely should have been a “rise off the salt” step in there because mine were unbearably salty. Also my tomatoes were in the microwave for more like 10 minutes per batch on full power before they even began to dry out.

    1. Vivian- sorry they didn’t turn out well for you. There isn’t a set amount of salt in the recipe, it just says “kosher salt” in the ingredients because the salting is such a personal preference. If you don’t like a lot of it, I wouldn’t salt too generously then. Also, every person’s microwave is so different it’s pretty hard to give a standard time that will work for all. Like I mentioned in the note of the recipe, power level 7 for 5-6 minutes worked best for me but that will be different for each person depending on the make, model and how old your microwave is. You just have to watch them carefully to see when they are drying out and go from there.

    2. whiners gotta whine. Vivian…..If you find it salty, YOU control the amount of salt. YOU.

  7. Cool recipe. I’ve never really heard of tomato chips like this before.
    I’m excited to try them out and see how they taste.
    Looks like it could be a good additional to my healthy diet i’m working on. :) thanks