Karl’s Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Karl’s Tomato and Cucumber Salad

We started a raised bed garden and we had one perfect cucumber.  We had also planted basil and chives. So I created this recipe to match these ingredients.

Karl’s Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cucumber, peeled
• 2 large beef steak tomatoes
• Pinch salt
• ½ cup red onion, sliced thin
• 10 large basil leaves
• 10 chive leaves

Dressing

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 small clove, mashed fine
• 1 Tbs. Balsamic vinegar
• ¼ tsp. sugar
• ¼ tsp. dry mustard
• ¼ tsp. Black pepper

 Directions

1. Peel, quarter, seed and chop cucumber and place in a bowl.

2. Seed tomatoes, scraping seeds and jelly into a small bowl.  Chop tomato into pieces about the same size as the cucumber. Add tomatoes to the bowl and salt lightly and stir. Place tomatoes and cucumbers into a sieve and drain for ½ hour.  Discard fluid.  (Note: Strain the tomato jelly and seeds, discard seeds and add jelly to a soup, like Karl’s Crawdaddy Corn Chowder.)

3. Return tomatoes and cucumbers to bowl and add onions.

4. Mix dressing ingredients in a small jar and pour over salad.  Mix and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.

5. Just before serving, stir in chiffonade basil and chopped chives.