Tomato Salad Recipe
This tomato salad made of tomatoes from a friend’s garden is the salad dreams are made of!
My friend plants a gigantic vegetable garden each summer. And now that I’m living close by again, she’s been delivering fresh tomatoes on a semi-regular basis. I love them! But they do go bad pretty quickly, so I had to come up with a recipe to use them up fast.
Tomato Salad
This particular recipe is really versatile. You don’t have to follow the measurements exactly. Feel free to add more or less bell peppers or onions, use a different variety of tomatoes or even stir in a little balsamic vinegar!
This is perfect for a pot luck dish too! It makes a great side salad for almost any function. You just can’t go wrong with tomatoes! And if you’re lucky enough to be enjoying burgers off the grill, this goes fabulously well on your burger in place of regular, sliced tomatoes!
Tomato Salad Ingredients
½ cup chopped red bell pepper – Chop this as fine as you can get it. If you prefer a different color bell pepper, feel free to use it.
½ cup chopped green bell pepper – Many people don’t care for green bell peppers because of their stringent flavor. The flavor is good in this salad, but if you really can’t stand them, any other color pepper will work just fine here.
½ cup chopped, yellow onion – Don’t have yellow onions? While white onions would be okay here, I strongly recommend purple onions instead. But use what you have on hand.
4 cups chopped tomatoes – You’ll want to chop these relatively small, but make sure you don’t overdo the chopping. You want a little bit of chunk from your tomatoes in this salad.
6 large leaves fresh basil – Chop the basil, either into strips, or chopped very fine. Consider the texture you like in your fresh basil with a salad like this. I prefer strips, but a finely chopped or minced basil will give more even coverage of flavor throughout the salad.
4 cloves garlic, minced OR 1-2 tsp. garlic powder – I prefer the garlic powder in this, but many people prefer fresh garlic. The choice is yours.
Salt and pepper to taste – I used pink Himalayan salt and ground black pepper here. But other salts will work here, particularly a good finishing salt. And white pepper would be tasty here as well. Use what you have.
How To make Tomato Salad
Clean and chop all ingredients, then toss together in a medium mixing bowl.
How To Store Tomato Salad
Store in the fridge in an air-tight container. Fresh tomato salad won’t keep long in the fridge, so you’ll need to eat this fast. I highly recommend letting this come to room temperature before you eat any leftovers. It just tastes better when it’s not cold. I have found that this salad starts to change texture after 24 hours in the fridge. So eat up!
Serving Tomato Salad
Set on the counter for about 20 minutes before serving.
What Tomatoes Are Best For Tomato Salad?
There is no “one right tomato” variety for a salad like this. Pretty much any tomato variety will work well.
Just keep your whole tomatoes at room temperature. Don’t store uncut tomatoes in the fridge.
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TOMATO SALAD RECIPE:
Tomato Salad
Ingredients
- ½ cup chopped red bell pepper
- ½ cup chopped green bell pepper
- ½ cup chopped, yellow onion
- 4 cups chopped tomatoes, any variety
- 6 large leaves fresh basil, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced OR 1-2 tsp. garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Clean and chop all ingredients.
- Stir together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Store in the fridge.
- Set on the counter for about 20 minutes before serving. This is better in flavor if it’s not cold when served.