Summer Tomatoes & Avocado Salad
A fresh, oil-free, vegan summer delight!
Summer Tomatoes & Avocado Salad makes a beautiful appetizer as well as the main salad event along side other summer dishes.
The combination of the tomatoes and avocado makes its own oil-free vegan dressing. Requiring only a few minutes of prep it is ready to serve in about 10 minutes. Summer Tomato & Avocado Salad is more of an inspiration by the vibrant taste of the beautiful summer tomatoes and delicate lettuce from the Farmers market than it is a recipe.
It is simply combining the ingredients on a platter and letting the natural flavors tell the story. This kind of dish is a reminder that the freshest, best grown fruits and vegetables don’t need much prep or intervention to make a delicious, healthful dish.
Summer Tomatoes from the Farmers Market
For this summer tastiness, I selected and combined several types of tomatoes, each with a unique flavor profile. During the summer and into fall, the Farmers market is full of tomatoes in a rainbow of colors and flavors. The Green Zebra tomatoes have a more tart flavor than the red and orange varieties. The orange tomatoes were sweet and “fruity” and the red tomatoes had a beautiful balance of tartness, sweetness and slightly spicy flavor.
It Makes Its Own Dressing
Summer tomatoes and avocados make an oil-free vegan dressing just by combining the two together and allowing to marry for a few minutes. After cutting the tomatoes into wedges and adding the avocado slices into the same prep bowl, the tomato juices that release and the avocado combine to make the best dressing without any other ingredients. The tomato liquid will also keep the avocado slices from turning brown too quickly. Allow the tomato wedges and avocado slices to sit a few minutes (but not too long) and give the bowl a gentle toss. When the tomato liquid and avocado marry for a few minutes they come together in a perfect balance of tanginess from the tomatoes and richness from the avocados.
For a more tart taste, add some lemon or lime juice. Whether to add lemonwill depend on the tomatoes and your palette of course. A little sea salt may be welcome too. But without that little sprinkle of salt this summer tomato salad is a naturally SOS free dish (sugar-free, oil-free, salt-free).
If you want a dressing, the Bright Summer Oil-free Tomato Salad Dressing is a quick dressing that is perfect for this salad.
Leafy Lettuce
Any of the leafy lettuces will be good for this particular salad. The lettuce featured in this summer tomatoes & avocado salad is from the Farmers market. It has a medium delicate leaf, green at the base and red to purple around the edges so looks as beautiful as it tastes.
Tools Used in this Recipe
- Cutting Board
- salad spinner
- very sharp pairing knife and/or slicing knife
- Prep Bowl
- serving platter
Ingredients
- 4 tomatoes from the Farmers market or your own garden
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 Lettuce head Lettuce preferably from the Farmers market or your own garden
Instructions
- Wash the tomatoes and avocado. Wash and spin dry the lettuce.
- Cut out the stem area of each tomato with a pairing knife. Cut the tomatoes in wedges and put in a medium sized prep bowl.
- Cut the avocado in half and remove the seed. Cut in half again. With the skin still on, cut crosswise and spoon out the slices for each quarter of the avocado. Add the avocado slices to the prep bowl with the tomatoes and toss or mix in with a spoon being careful not too smash the avocado slices too much. The tomato liquid will keep the avocado slices from turning brown.
- Set aside the tomatoes and avocado slices bowl for a few minutes while you prepare the salad platter.
- Cut some of the lettuce leaves in ribbons and place on the serving platter. Place whole or partial leaves around the edges of the platter.
- At this point the tomatoes and avocado will have released a fair amount of juice depending on the tomatoes you used. Toss the tomatoes and avocado slices one more time. Taste the self-,made dressing. Add lemon juice if desired and a little salt if desired and mix in.
- Drizzles some of the juice on the leaves on the out edge of the platter. Spoon out the tomatoes onto the lettuce in the center of the platter and drizzle the rest of the "dressing" on the whole platter.
Notes
- Add torn basil leaves for extra flavor
- Cut the tomatoes and avocados into smaller pieces (diced) to make a bruschetta topping. Bruschetta is toasted or grilled bread rubbed with garlic. Diced tomatoes and avocados with a little of the juice makes a great bruschetta topping.
