Rustic Tomato Salad with Crunchy Croutons
A brightly coloured tomato salad, bursting with sunshine and flavour, with crunchy croutons, and a scattering of parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
Croutons
- 100g rustic bread, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt
Salad
- 500g mixed tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 bunch fresh basil, chopped roughly
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- Freshly shaved parmesan, to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Toss the diced bread through the olive oil and salt, and then spread out onto a large baking tray.
- Bake in the hot oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Set aside.
- Toss the tomatoes through 1/2 tsp salt, and set aside in a sieve for 10 minutes. Discard any juices collected.
- Next, in a large salad bowl, toss together the tomatoes, basil, onions, extra virgin olive oil, and croutons. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and then scatter freshly shaved parmesan over the top to serve.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 250Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 22mgSodium: 1453mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 3gSugar: 6gProtein: 11g
Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
Rustic Tomato Salad with Crunchy Croutons Recipe
The first time I made this salad was almost a decade ago, back in Brisbane. It was a bright, summery day and I wanted nothing more than a bright, colourful salad to reflect the weather. And when you find such gorgeously coloured tomatoes, in both ruby and golden hues? It’s hard not to want a simple tomato salad scattered with croutons and shavings of parmesan.
Here in Scotland however, bright and sunny days are few and far between. In fact, it is a common joke here that we only get two weeks of summer each year! And this week is week two of blistering bright, warm weather. And so, more salads are on the menu, and especially my favourite tomato salad.
My rustic tomato salad involves a fair bit of slicing and dicing, but there’s nothing here to be too precise about. In fact, I enjoy cutting the tomatoes into different sizes for a bit of creativity and because not everything in cooking has to be precise. After all, we’re just making a salad – not baking a cake!
This sudden heat however does have me a little homesick for Sydney. Sydney is renowned for its gorgeous multi-cultural approach to cuisine, and the food you find there is something completely special. A lot of my cooking here in the UK is me trying to recapture the food from back home. Although I try to indulge myself in Scottish culture as much as possible, I don’t see the point of giving up my own culture, and the food that made me who I am today. Needless to say though, should I ever find myself back in Sydney (post-pandemic) I will undoubtedly be eating my way through the city! And surrounding myself with friends and family as I eat, of course.
