This is a “where have you been all my life?” recipe. I’d never thought of putting two acidic fruits, such as tomatoes and strawberries together (yes, tomatoes are technically a fruit,) and my first reaction was “Eww.” It sounded like one of those recipes that we food bloggers do when we’re trying to create something original, and it doesn’t quite work. Well, this works.
When you add raspberry vinaigrette mixed with sugar as the dressing, and some fresh mint to the sliced strawberries and tomatoes, you get a light, crisp summer salad that works at room temperature as well as when it’s very cold. It’s a clean-tasting salad, and easy to make, though not something to do a day ahead – it’s best served fresh, with the mint added just before you present it to your soon-to-be-grateful friends or family. It’s also gorgeous. I used chocolate cherry tomatoes, which are a little darker in color than regular cherry tomatoes, but that’s just a matter of optics – the taste is the same. Enjoy!
Strawberry and Tomato Salad
Adapted from House and Garden UK
Serves: 4
Prep time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 quarts fresh strawberries, sliced
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- 2 tablespoons mint leaves, left intact if small, chopped roughly if leaves are large
- 6 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup of very fine sugar (you can process regular sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds to make the sugar fine enough to dissolve easily in the dressing)
Directions
- Gently mix together tomatoes and strawberries and place in a serving bowl.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine raspberry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved.
- Spoon vinegar dressing over fruit and sprinkle with mint.
- Very gently combine ingredients, garnish top with whole berries and a few more mint leaves and serve.
