Sunday, August 2, 2009

Summer Was Made for This

This salad is what summer tastes like for me: warm ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, cool cucumbers--yum! I got it out of a Weight Watchers cookbook and modified it a little.

Summer Tomato Salad

3 Tbsp. red-wine vinegar
4 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. spicy or Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. pepper
2-4 tomatoes, diced
2-4 cucumbers, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1/3 c. basil leaves, shredded

1. To prepare the dressing, in your serving bowl, whisk the vinegar, salt, mustard, and pepper together. Add the olive oil in a steady, slow stream while whisking constantly.

2. Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and basil to the dressing. Toss to coat. Refrigerate, covered, tossing once, until the flavors are blended, at least one hour. (If you can wait that long, and mine usually needs to be on the table way before that. Plus I like it room temp.)

Notes:
I added the cucumber, so feel free to leave it out, but I find that when I have lots of ripe tomatoes that need eating, I also have lots of cucumbers that need eating. Also, I don't usually measure the basil. Put in what you think will taste good.