Recipe: Tomato Salad With Walnuts And Cheese

Let this Tomato Salad With Walnuts and Cheese come to the rescue when you're in the hunt for something healthy and clean to eat. And cool too.

It's also an efficient way to stay energised in the first half of your day and will help you get closer to your weight loss goals.

The walnuts, tomatoes and blue cheese bring on the flavour and texture in this dish.

Tomato Salad With Walnuts And Cheese

Recipe courtesy: California Walnuts

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 kg ripe tomatoes, preferably perfect specimens
• Salt to taste, around ¼ tsp
• Dash black pepper powder
• ½ cup whole walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 100 gm thinly sliced blue cheese
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh sua or shepu or dill
• 1–2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

For the dressing

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• 1 garlic pod, finely minced or 1 tbsp finely minced shallot
• Pinch salt
• Dash black pepper powder

Method

• Wash and slice the tomatoes.
  Place them on a platter, slightly overlapping.
  Sprinkle the salt and the pepper over them.
  Scatter the toasted walnuts and add the thinly sliced blue cheese on top.
  Sprinkle the fresh herbs.
• Make the dressing, mix well, and drizzle it over the salad, making sure each tomato slice gets a bit.

Editor's Note: This recipes calls for heirloom tomatoes which are some of the freshest tomatoes. Try sourcing the larger ripe tomatoes. Also, add a couple of semi-ripe yellow and orange tomatoes for a vibrant platter.

Instead of blue cheese, a few tbsp feta cheese will do fine or crumbled paneer mixed with feta cheese. Ricotta cheese would also be a good substitution.

If you are partial to a little sweetness in your salad, add a tsp honey or jaggery in the dressing or Totapuri mango pieces or a few peeled sgements of tangerines with the tomatoes.

• REDIFF RECIPES