Today was the annual Heirloom Tomato Festival at the Santa Rosa farmer’s market. I have done a cooking demonstration at the market for this event for many years. I had to skip last year because I was traveling.
This year, i decided because raw food is still trendy, that I would prepare a simply delicious heirloom tomato salad with a little twist — grated lemon zest. Anyone can make it, and you can even leave out the oil, if you follow an oil-free diet. Just use less vinegar.
People asked me all kinds of questions about the salad. One was why I didn’t use balsamic vinegar (which I really like) and the reason: it doesn’t look so good although you could use the golden, not white, balsamic with good results. I wanted the tomatoes to shine through and be the stars. I used a combination of different colored tomatoes. And I am sorry to say that i was so busy making the salad, that I did not snap a photo of it. But i used some beautiful heirlooms, including one like this, a Brandywine, plus Cherokee purple, green zebra, German stripe, Hawaiian pineapple and a number more.
I used a Burgundy garlic which tends to be a bit milder than standard garlic which was perfect for this setting.
I was thrilled to have had kids who tasted and liked the salad. I consider that vegetable success.
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