Vegetable tomato salad
LEVEL: Beginner
INGREDIENTS
SERVES 6red, green and yellow heritage tomatoes: 3 beef tomatoes, 4 vine tomatoes and 2 long vines of red and yellow medium cherry or midi plum tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1½ tbsp sumac, plus extra to sprinkle
75ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar squeeze of lemon juice
½-1 long mild green chilli, thinly sliced
2 spring onions, sliced small handful of young mint sprigs, leaves picked
salt and black pepper
METHOD
This is a very popular summer salad in the villages of Syria and the Lebanon, where villagers pick tomatoes from their own garden, still warm, and ripened by the sun until juicy and sweet. This might be the simplest salad you will ever make, but it’s also one of the most delicious. Once you’ve made it, leave it on the side for 20 minutes or so to allow the juices of the tomatoes to run into the dressing for extra flavour.
Slice the tomatoes and arrange them on a plate so you have a really good balance of colour between the red, yellow and green tomatoes.
Crush the garlic with a bit of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Put in a bowl and stir in the sumac, then add the olive oil, cider vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice, and whisk together.
Drizzle the dressing over the tomatoes, then scatter the chilli over the top, followed by the spring onions and the mint leaves. Finally, be generous and sprinkle extra sumac on top of the tomatoes before serving.
