You are here

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

image

My love for sun-dried tomatoes began many years ago when they came with a vegetarian pasta dish at an Italian eatery in a suburb of Chicago. Chewy, mildly sweet and tart - what were these delectable morsels of goodness?

Beyond their lovely flavor and unique texture, one cup of sun-dried tomatoes offers abundant quantities of the following health-enhancing nutrients:

  1. About a quarter of the recommended daily amount of natural vitamin C to support immune system function, tissue healing, bone and dental health, and protection against excess free radicals throughout the body.

  2. Around 7 grams of soluble and insoluble fiber to facilitate optimal absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream and healthy bowel movements.

  3. About 40 percent of the recommended daily intake of potassium, a mineral that is essential to nerve function, cardiovascular health, and skeletal muscle contraction.

  4. Approximately 8 grams of healthy protein.

  5. About 20 percent of the suggested daily intake of vitamin K, essential for ensuring optimal mineralization of teeth and bones.

Sun-dried tomatoes are also abundant in carotenoids that support healthy vision, as well as vitamins B1, B2, and B3, needed for basic metabolic activities in all cells.

Because of their intense flavour profile, you only need to add a small handful to significantly enhance salads, omelettes, and pasta dishes.

Here is a brief look at a simple recipe for scrambled eggs with sun-dried tomatoes and greens of your choice:

Ingredients:

3-5 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
Handful of chopped greens - spinach, green onions, and basil all work well
2-3 organic eggs, whisked
Sea salt and pepper
Cooking oil of your choice

Directions:

1. Add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and greens to whisked eggs.

2. Warm up cooking oil over medium heat in a pan.

3. Use a wood spoon or fork to stir ingredients as soon as they hit the hot pan until scrambled to your liking. Transfer to serving plate, season with sea salt and pepper.

image

image

image

image

If you have a favourite recipe that calls for sun-dried tomatoes, I'd really appreciate you sharing with our community via the comments section below. Thanks so much.

 
 

Join more than 80,000 readers worldwide who receive Dr. Ben Kim's free newsletter

Receive simple suggestions to measurably improve your health and mobility, plus alerts on specials and giveaways at our catalogue

Please Rate This

Your rating: None Average: 4.9 (27 votes)
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
 
 
 

Comments

Roma tomatoes grew in abundance in our garden this year.I roasted them regularly, then bagged them in freezer zip locks. I now have a stack of them waiting, recipe ready. Softer than a completely sun dried tomato, they are ready to smear on buttered toast, or toss into a soup or pasta dish. They are easily blended with broth for a pungent flavor. Partially frozen, they are easy to rough chop for any dish.

I love your idea for freezing roasted Roma tomatoes! I'm planning to take this a step further with my dehydrator.

I'll let you know how they turn out :)

One suggestion for non-cooked Bulgarian chutney - Put the sun dried tomatoes and dry peppers into some hot water for a few minutes until they softened. Then bland them with some garlic, olive oil and salt. The result is a paste who you can put on bread.

This recipe looks delicious!

Wonderful recipe and great nutritional guidelines.
BUT
Where is there any mention NOT TO USE *** TOXIC VEGETABLE OILS MADE FROM GRAINS *** such as Canola, Soy Bean Oil, etc. Use of these turns the Scrambled Eggs into a TOXIC meal that even the nutritional profile cannot protect you from.

Best to use Coconut Oil or Virgin Oilive Oil - but Coconut is best.

Here is a wonderful recipe that uses sun-dried tomatoes. It's from Brendan Brazier, the founder of Vega, and is in his Thrive Diet book. It's called Ketchup, but I've also used it as a pasta sauce, on steamed veggies, and on sandwiches.

The ingredients are:
4 fresh or soaked dried dates (I use medjool dates)
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup agave nectar (or substitute another sweetener)
1/4 cup hemp oil(I often substitute extra virgin olive oil)
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. oregano (dried)
sea salt to taste (I use about 1/2 tsp.)

Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Makes about 3 cups. Keeps for up to 4 weeks in refrigerator.

So easy - and so delicious!

I add them to my homemade hummus. -a smoothie - slice them thin and toss with a little olive oil in zucchini angle hair pasta warm or cold.

The recipe for the scrambled eggs looks great, I am going to try it! Here's one of my old standby recipes for a soup with sundried tomatoes: Pasta White Bean Soup
Chop 3 carrots and 1 large onion (dice into small pieces). Sautee some whole minced garlic with the carrots and onions in 1 T olive oil. Add 2 large cans chicken broth, 1 chicken bouillon cube, 8 oz water, ½ cup sundried tomatoes (chopped small), and 2 cans cannellini beans. Simmer 15 minutes, then add 1 cup shell pasta and simmer 10 more minutes. You could make this a bit healthier by using home-made stock and a whole grain pasta.

Do you know if there are any secrets on making sun-dried tomatoes in oil, that Italian antipasti. Loved it served on buffet

Hi, it seems to me that the properties of sundried tomatoes pair nicely with turmeric as a cancer preventative/anti-cancer food. I frequently eat scrambled eggs with lots of turmeric and black pepper mixed in. I now see I should be adding sundried tomatoes and am thinking capers would be nice as well. Any thoughts?