I have to admit that I love eating salad only if it has avocados, a basil or pesto dressing, smoked salmon slices or cheese. I hate salad bowls where it’s filled to the brim with green leaves. It puts me off immediately because I hate having to stuff green leaves into my mouth, and it looks very ungraceful too, especially when you are trying to host your guests and trying to look as prim and proper as possible without opening your mouth too wide. It’s impossible to do that eating a bowl of salad with lots of grass.
Which is why I love this salad because it is (i) colourful (ii) Christmasy (look at the colours!) (iii) has an acidic and appetising dressing (iv) is easy to munch into v) has a lovely crunch to it with all the tomatoes, onions and herbs added in (vi) is easy to mix and stir together and spoon up. There’s no cooking required, and you can prepare the sauce in advance. If you need something more than a bowl of salad, you can easily whip up a plate of runny scrambled egg or sunny side up to eat this with.
Yum yum!
Ingredients:
- Garlic: 1
- Basil: 1 cup + extra for garnish
- Parsley: 2 stalks (4 tbsp) + extra for garnish
- Salted caper: 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp (rinsed)
- Extra virgin olive oil: 2/3 cup (150ml)
- Balsamic vinegar: 1 tbsp
- Salt: to taste
- Ground blackpepper: to taste
- Cherry tomato: 1 pack (250g, halved)
- Fresh mozzarella cheese: 4 packs/balls (crumbled)
- Red onion: 2, small, finely chopped
Method:
- Blend together garlic, basil, parsley and 1 tbsp capers. Process briefly.
- While processing, pour in olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and blackpepper. Set aside.
- Combine cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, red onion & 1 tbsp capers in a mixing bowl.
- Drizzle with basil dressing and mix to combine. Leave to marinate 15min.
- Garnish with extra basil and parsley to serve.
Tricks:
- The original recipe calls for 10 red tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes so that both the tomatoes and mozzarella can be sliced and arranged alternatively and plated nicely, with the dressing drizzled on top. However, I have a boy at home who doesn’t like red tomatoes unless it’s cherry tomatoes, so I’ve come up with this alternative version instead. It works great too!
- I didn’t have balsamic vinegar at home and so used apple cider vinegar instead.
Serving:
6 – 8 persons as side dish