Tomato Salad

I love fresh tomatoes and this salad is a fresh and flavorful way to eat them. It doesn’t matter what kind of tomatoes you use. For this recipe I used a bunch of heirloom tomatoes that we harvested from our garden. In this tomato salad we have the following tomatoes: Mexican Midget’s which are a little smaller than conventional cherry tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomatoes, Brandywine tomatoes , and some Bean’s yellow pear tomatoes. We were also able to use some of our Basil from our garden and a cucumber one of our neighbors gave us from their garden.

5 cups tomatoes (or diced to bite size)
1 medium cucumber
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
12 fresh basil leaves
1/ 2 teaspoon salt

Mince garlic and add to balsamic vinegar. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. This softens the flavor of the garlic.
Mix vinegar mixture with olive oil.
Finely chop Basil and add to your liquid mixture.
Slice tomatoes and cucumbers into bite size pieces
Add balsamic mixture to salad and enjoy

Variations: You could add greek olives, mozzarella, or artichoke hearts to this recipe as well.

~Michael