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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37 Comments

  1. Tomato Chips! Surprisingly very good. Guilt-free, light and healthy snack that is very easy to make and enjoy. Yum!