Summer Tomato Salad with Sumac Pickled Shallots

This salad should be made with the best summer tomatoes available. They’re aren’t many ingredients in this recipe, tomatoes are the protagonist and the star of the show, so its worth making that trip to the farmers market for those sweet, flavorful, ripe juicy tomatoes, trust me its worth it. This recipe is like a caprese without the cheese, avocado and seeds replace the cheese and the marinated shallots add another layer of flavor to this recipe. Best served with some crusty Italian bread to mop up the juices or grilled proteins like salmon or chicken to make it a substantial meal.

Pickled sumac shallots add a piquant flavor without taking away anything from the tomatoes, but add a delicious crunch in the background. The sumac is a tart dried fruit popular in Middle eastern and Mediterranean cuisine and is wonderful in this recipe.

How To Make The best Summer Tomato Salad

• Tomatoes: Ripe juicy summer tomatoes are the best for this salad. Farmer markets have an array of colorful variety of tomatoes to choose from( Bradywine, heirloom, red, yellow cherry, green tiger, plum) . A good mix of color, shapes and heirloom variety is ideal for this recipe.They’re full of flavor, juicy and sweet this time of the year.
• Sumac: A middle eastern Mediterranean berry/fruit. Its dried and ground into a powder form, added to give the dish a distinct tart flavor. Its easily available in well stocked grocery stores and online.
• Herbs: Basil is the best and pairs beautifully with tomatoes. I picked a few thyme leaves from my garden that morning that I added to the salad it’s totally optional.
• Shallot: we marinate shallots with sumac and white balsamic vinegar to lightly pickle the allium. Adds a wonderful piquant flavor to the salad.
• Seeds and Avocado: Every good salad needs a toasty crunch, seeds brings that to this salad. Choose pumpkin, pine nuts or chopped almonds, and remember to toast them. Avocado because a little creamy texture with essential fats is needed in a salad, I completely forgot to add them before photographing. I do recommend a medium chopped avocado.
• Bread: a good artisanal bread toasted is wonderful to mop up the juicy tomatoes. It’s not part of the recipe, but on hindside I thought a few pieces of toasted crusty Italian bread would have been ideal here.

Summer Tomato Salad with Sumac Pickled Shallots, Serves 4

• 1 1/2 pounds mixed summer tomatoes
• 1-2 large-medium shallots thinly sliced
• 1 heaped tablespoon sumac
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar or any light white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons e.v olive oil, cold pressed, best quality you have
• 1 cup basil leaves
• 1 medium avocado, diced
• 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds or any seeds/nuts you like
• sea salt and black pepper to your taste

Instructions

1. Slice the shallots and add it to a small bowl with sumac, 1/2 the salt and white balsamic vinegar. Mix gently and allow it to pickle for 30 minutes.
2. Slice the tomatoes based on their shape and size into half or quarter wedges. Add them to a bowl. Drizzle the olive oil, remaining salt, cracked pepper, half the basil leaves and toss gently.
3. Transfer to a large serving plate and arrange neatly. Add the diced avocado I forgot to add it to my plate. Spoon the pickled shallots distributing them evenly under and above the tomatoes including the pickle juice.
4. Garnish with toasted seeds and the remaining basil leaves and serve. Best served with crusty toasted bread or part of a meal.