I'm happy to be the first reviewer of this seriously good salad and hopefully get the recipe off to a flying start! I found as I was going to describe this as "light and fresh " that the submitter had already described it perfectly himself. This was exactly what I had in mind when I was searching for a tomato-cucumber salad this morning and I found this one particularly appealing in that it called for three different acids - the balsamic vinegar the lighter red wine vinegar and lemon juice. Loved it especially with the lemon juice and zest as I don't generally like the heavy sweet taste of balsamic vinegar. Classic Mediterranean ingredients and flavors easily mixed in proportions to suit your own tastes - in my case that would mean a little more olive oil and no sugar. I seeded the tomatoes before chopping so as not to have their excess liquid in the salad. The salad now hours after I put it together is already even better since the flavors have had a chance to marry. Since fresh basil has a tendency to turn black I will add that just before serving. Any leftovers (if there are any!) I plan to mix with some ceci beans (garbanzo beans) for a healthy light lunch. Beautiful salad full of flavor and pleasantly so!
Hi Folks This is my recipe and i should have mentioned it was not my intention to pour all the dressing on the salad. Only what YOU like. Start lite and add it's the #1 rule of cooking. You can add but you can't take it out.:) Sorry for the confusion. I could not figure out how to edit my recipe once it was posted. Thank you all for the great reviews I'm thrilled you like it!
I really enjoyed this salad as a use for garden veggies! The dressing was nice and flavorful but not too radical - I did think it was a bit much, so i cut it in half. The second day I added tortellini to the leftovers - they were gone before I got any. I will definitely make this one again.
This is a great recipe. I even added thin sliced goose neck squash and juliene sliced bell peppers thin slices of red onions also. I took this dish to a recent family reunion and there were no left overs. We had more than a 100 guests at the reunion. I would give this recipe 10 stars if possible.
This was awesome. I skipped the zucchini because I just harvested a ton of tomatoes and cucumbers from my garden. My husband took a second helping right away!
This is a great recipe but as others reviewed to much dressing I cut it in half and it was perfect. The leftovers are perfect to throw on cut lettuce and top with feta cheese for a salad for the next day yummy!
Love this salad! Had everything from my garden. Used kalamata olives for an extra zing. Would also be good to add lettuce. The dressing is very flavorful. Can't wait for leftovers tomorrow!
I made this last night to go along with some shrimp scampi. This is a wonderful light salad for a hot summer night. I pretty much followed the recipe ingredients except I didn't put in zucchini and used the whole can of black olives and whole red onion. Since I had all the herbs growing in my garden used fresh herbs and the dressing I did use a little less of the oil. Will make again.
Excellent! So fresh and tasty.....I had no fresh basil or thyme so I had to use dried......definately fresh next time especially for the basil.....I love fresh basil. My only other mini change was to decrease the olive oil to 3tblspns instead of 1/2c. I made this in the morning and served with dinner.....nice combo of flavors that got better with time. I loved the fresh lemon zest and juice in the dressing as well. Nice salad...thanks!
We didn't care for this. I had high hopes b/c it is such a diet friendly salad. It just didn't work for us.
