rainbow tomato basil feta salad. homemade healthy.

Its tomato season. Ripe, small Sungolds pop in your mouth with the sweet tangy juices spurting all over. The less juicy paste tomatoes glisten in the sun, amidst the curling tangle of vines and leaves, waiting to turn into winters tomato sauce or the freshest ketchup in town. The heirlooms sit high and mighty with their zebra stripes, massive and barely holding on the their mother vine. The slicer tomatoes, those sandwich kings, rest humbly next to their kin tomatoes, ready for a nice summer salad opportunity.

Working with tomatoes is a love/hate sort of thing. If you've ever dug deep within the seeping tomato vines to get to that vibrant red globe, you know that feeling of itchy roughness that rubs all over your arms and hands. The tomatoes, a nightshade (Solanaceae family), are related to a number of toxic plants, and you can feel that noxious materials exuding from the leaves. After trellising a greenhouse full of tomatoes, my hands were covered in green, yellow, and black sticky resin. It looked like the skin of a lizard. But once those delicious red fruits started ripening, my aversion to the fierce plants turned into sunny delight.

A harvest basket full of ingredients for this summer salad, plus some grapes for snacking!

I feel as though i've made this tomato salad every other week while the tomatoes have been ready. Its so delicious, and easy to put together with the freshest of farm ingredients. As with most foods, 'those that grow together, go together,' and basil its a tomato's best sidekick. And to really make a rainbow version, pick (or buy) red and yellow slicer tomatoes as well as green, sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum 'Genovese') and purple basil (Ocimum basilicum 'Purpurescens').  

Basically a Caprese salad, this version utilizes the fresh, raw goat feta that we make from Una, Leigha, and Roo, our milkers here. We use the recipe from Artisan Cheese Making at Home, by Mary Karlin, though there are many recipes online for an easy cheesy version. Instead of using traditional mozzarella, the feta adds an amazing tangy salty bite complementing the juicy tomatoes and pungent basil. The addition of red onion is an optional addition for those who want an extra bite. 

alternating red and orange tomatoes for extra rainbow effect

Homemade raw goat feta

Rainbow Tomato Basil Feta Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 medium orange or yellow tomatoes
3 medium red tomatoes
a few sprigs each green and purple basil (about 1/3 cup chopped)
5-6 big cubes feta cheese (1/3-1/2 cup), crumbled
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced (optional)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Remove tomato tops and wash if desired. Slice tomatoes into thick (1/4 in) slices and arrange by alternating orange and red tomatoes, laying one slightly on top of the other in a fan.

Remove stems from the basil and roughly chop. Sprinkle liberally on the tomato slices.

Crumble feta over salad and sprinkle on chopped onion, if using.

Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Grind fresh pepper and add salt to taste.

Enjoy the flavors of summer!