simple heirloom tomato salad

Here’s a simple salad that you can throw together for a quick lunch or dinner, or bring as a side at a gathering with friends and family. It was so hot in London last week that I made this heirloom tomato salad practically every night for dinner, refusing to turn on the oven or stove without A/C in our apartment! If you do eat dairy, burrata or buffalo mozzarella are a welcome addition. The salad has minimal ingredients, so make sure to shop for top quality produce.

Heirloom tomato season is my favorite, rivaling summer peaches and berries. Although they grow their own tomatoes here in England (most famously are the Isle of Wight variety) they don’t quite compare to the heirloom tomatoes from Italy or the California tomatoes from home. However, anything fresh in this hot weather is a treat! When selecting your tomatoes, choose a variety of colors and sizes. For the tender lettuces, I use some local greens from the farmers’ market made up of baby romaine, butter lettuce and such. If you can’t find any high quality greens you can forgo them all together, it just adds some extra volume. While I provided measurements for the dressing, go with your own intuition and preference. A light drizzling of olive oil and a dash of balsamic are all you need. You can even leave the olive oil and vinegar on the table for people to help themselves.

Comment in the section below if you made the recipe and let me know how it turned out!

Bon appetit,

xo Mary

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Serving platter or large plate

Serving utensils

Measuring spoons or just eyeball it!

Cutting board

Serrated knife for slicing tomatoes

Pairing knife for avocado

Simple Heirloom Tomato Salad

This simple heirloom tomato salad can be thrown together in about 5 minutes. The ingredients are minimal so be sure to go for quality produce. If you eat dairy, burrata or buffalo mozzarella are a welcome addition.

Serves: 2-4

Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups tender lettuces
• Heirloom tomatoes in varying sizes and colors (i.e. 2-3 large, 2-3 medium and a handful of baby)
• 1 avocado
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2-3 tablespoons high quality olive oil
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, or to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons pinenuts
• handful of basil leaves
• flakey sea salt to taste
• optional 8-10 ounces buffalo mozzarella or burrata

Instructions:

1. Place the tender lettuces on a large plate or platter. Slice the large and medium tomatoes into 1/4 inch rounds and the baby tomatoes in half. Mindfully arrange the tomatoes on top of the lettuce.
2. Deseed and slice the avocado; disperse it over the top of the tomatoes. If you are adding burrata or mozzarella, dollop over the top of the avocadoes, followed by the capers.
3. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with pinenuts, hand-torn basil leaves and flakey sea salt to taste.