A COLORFUL FALL SALAD A Simple Side Dish for a Holiday Meals
	NOVEMBER 2005

by Kristie Knoll
Photos by Russell Byrne

As difficult as it is for a person like me to comprehend, people used to believe that tomatoes were poisonous. (Someone once commented about the great courage of the anonymous person who was the first to eat a tomato, proving that they weren’t poisonous.)

An organically grown, ripened on the vine tomato is actually one of the most delicious things you can put into your mouth or into any one of a thousand recipes. You can do so many things with them — from making tomato soup, to Bruschetta, to Gazpacho.

Another great thing about tomatoes is that they are wonderfully good for you, containing a lot of goodness like Vitamin C and Lycopenes — one of the sources of anti-oxidants, which help the body maintain vigor and health.

A third wonderful thing about tomatoes is that fresh East County tomatoes can be available through November, and if the weather cooperates you can sometimes be picking them into December.

You can also use Vitamin C powder — either Calcium Ascorbate (which is what I buy) or Ascorbic Acid — to preserve the freshness of the basil and to keep it from turning black.

The following recipe will serve four people.

Ingredients
4 tomatoes
A handful of arugula leaves
Fresh basil
A bulb of roasted garlic
Olive oil
A horseradish leaf

I’m using purple basil and small-leaf Italian basil, plus Early Girl, Beefsteak, and Yellow Roma tomatoes — but use any basil or tomatoes you have on hand. If you use a variety, as I have, the result will be especially colorful.

Recipe
1. Slice the tomatoes, making about four slices per tomato.
2. Spread them on a horseradish leaf on a serving plate.
3. Chop the basil and sprinkle over the tomatoes.
4. Add Vitamin C powder (I use a gram or so).
5. Squeeze the garlic out of the roasted cloves into a measuring cup.
6. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the garlic and whisk until smooth and creamy. (I’m a low-fat cook. Add more olive oil at your discretion.)
7. Put a dab of the mixture on each tomato.

Substitute cilantro for the basil to give a southwestern flavor to the dish. (In that case I would omit the arugula.)

Version 2
Here is an even easier variation using the above ingredients:

1. Chop the tomatoes together.
2. Add some chopped up arugula as a garnish.
3. Add a tablespoon of the garlic and olive oil mixture and stir into the tomatoes.
(Add more or less of the mixture to your own taste.)
4. Display the dish in a bowl or displayed on a fig leaf.

As with all recipes, you should feel free to experiment. Think of any recipe as being more of a possible direction you could go than as a road map you must follow.

The salads described on this page would provide a tasty side-dish to any family meal or holiday banquet.

On the other hand, if you are trying to eat healthy or offset some of the fats and sugars of the holiday feasts, one of these salads would be a great entrée for a lunch or light dinner.