When your patio garden is producing lots of tomatoes you find yourself eating lots of tomato salads topped with goat cheese, herbs and flavored oil.
Hello friends! This beautiful picture is a great example of how I also experience lunch on many summer days especially when it's tomato season. It looks like it's not much of a lunch I know but you would be surprised how much of a punch the herbs bring to the tomatoes. Once you add cheese and drizzle with oil... it turns into the perfect treat to spoon on top of freshly made crusty bread. Which is what I like to do.
Creamy Cheese
Now the creamy cheese in the picture is goat cheese / goat cheese is excellent with tomatoes and I just love any type of soft cheese like goat cheese, but I don't always have goat cheese, so I use whatever type of cheese I have. When it comes to soft cheese you can go with Brie, cream cheese, camembert or any Italian soft cheese like ricotta, mascarpone, mozzarella etc.
Fresh Tomatoes
Well for me... I use whatever tomatoes are ready to eat from my patio garden. All my tomatoes are growing in large flowerpots so it's a true patio garden. At the moment I have 8 different varieties of tomatoes and sometimes my tomato salad is very colorful with its black tomatoes, red tomatoes and yellow tomatoes. When you have several varieties of tomatoes the sweet flavors are very different and the mix of them all together is a full body taste of sweetness that you just have to experience to know what I'm talking about. It's very satisfying.
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Fresh Herbs
I go on and on about herbs all the time because I just love fresh herbs and tomato salad with fresh herbs in it is no different. In fact, it's soooo much a MUST when you're eating a tomato salad. You just can't skip this.
Is there a bad herb to use on tomatoes? I haven't found one yet that tasted bad but I'm sure I haven't tried the whole list of herbs to really say. I do however know I use thyme, oregano, rosemary, chives, sweet basil, purple basil... gosh I use all the basils.
Oil & Vinegars
Now you can find tomato salad recipes all over the Internet. Everything from those using olive oil to flavored oil to balsamic vinegar to red wine vinegar to apple cider vinegar used in it. I usually use whatever I have in the kitchen. I enjoy making flavored oils and vinegars so there's no telling what I reach for to drizzle on top. Some people even marinate the tomatoes for a time before they serve. I know some people splash it with lemon juice too.
Sugar & Garlic
Some recipes call for sugar sprinkled on top but for when since I use a variety of tomatoes, I don't need the sweetness, so I pass on that. Garlic is another option, but many will pass on garlic if they are serving garlic bread.
Red Onion
Red onion is called for in many of the recipes. I love red onions, so I use it if I have it. Sometimes I chop them up really small and sometimes I just toss them in as ringlets.
- 💰I think tomato salad is a budget lunch for sure. It costs very little to make this as a meal and is very refreshing on a hot summer day.
- 😁 Don't be afraid to try and toss in whatever you have and make your own recipe.
- 📅 National Tomato Month is celebrated every October. Serve a tomato salad in celebration of tomato month. May is National Salad Month.
- 🙏I am thankful for tomatoes. "Live everyday like a Holiday" Pam
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