Tomato, Cucumber & Onion Salad with Feta Cheese: Real Convenience Food



I love salad, but there are days when washing lettuce is just one thing too many to do. Do you have days like that? The idea of spending even just a few minutes at the sink, dutifully washing lettuce leaves just...smacks of effort. 

One of my favorite non-lettuce salads is this one: perfectly simple, tasty and lovely. It's reminiscent of an Israeli chopped salad (but with much less chopping). I happened upon some mini heirloom tomatoes; if you don't have access to them, just use regular ol' -- delicious! -- grape tomatoes. Even though you're not including greens in this salad, you'll still reap nutritional rewards from  the tomatoes, arguably one of the healthiest foods on earth. In fact, tomatoes are a good source of vitamin K, which is found mostly in greens (take note if your kids won't eat lettuce but will eat tomatoes!).

For you moms who work outside of the home: this salad travels well. Whereas a lettuce salad wilts pretty soon after you dress it, this salad is hearty; I would often prepare it at night, dress it in the morning, then take it to work for lunch. 


Ingredients
serves one as a main dish, two as a side salad
  • one kirby (aka pickling) or persian cucumber
  • about 2 cups mini heirloom or grape tomatoes
  • about 1/3c thinly sliced red onion
  • 1-2 ounces crumbled feta cheese
  • 2t extra virgin olive oil
  • 1-2T balsamic vinegar
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Slice the cucumber into half-moons.
and halve the tomatoes.



Toss in the onions.


Season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle the EVOO and vinegar over the veggies and toss. Top with crumbled feta. Now, this isn't some earth-shattering, innovative culinary creation. I ain't too proud to admit that. What this salad is, though, is delicious, healthful, inexpensive, aesthetically appealing, and quick. And that's good enough for this busy, tired mom!

Want to make this heartier? I love to add chickpeas. Or you can serve it over couscous or brown rice. Or spoon it over a grilled chicken breast. Play with it as you wish. Just remember: there's always time to make salad!

Comments

  1. Sounds great and i'm so glad you enjoyed it! I've made it with couscous before and really liked it. Also have made it with chickpeas, for more of a meal - yum.

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  2. Made this and paired it with chopped grilled chicken and couscous.  Hubby mixed it all
    together and really liked it.  Simple and oh so delicious and
    definitely takes a boring meal and makes it vibrant and interesting! 

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  3. Ooh, fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes and cukes make me JEALOUS. Garlic always sounds good to me; if you like scallions - or do you hate the whole onion family? - I often use them in this salad and they work really well. Hope you enjoy :-)

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  4. Lovely, FBS! Hubby just harvested some gorgeous cucumbers and cherry tomatoes from his garden. I'll pick up the feta this afternoon. You know how I feel about the onions...may sub garlic!

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  5. Congrats to you Flan and JUSTINE! JUSTINE! (In Theo's voice) on ur page

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  6. Thank you for sharing this. It looks very delicious.

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  7. This looks delicious! I am growing tomatoes this summer and would love to try this recipe.

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    Replies
    1. I hope you do! And please come back and let us know how you like it :-)

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  8. (Tomato, Cucumber & Onion Salad with Feta Cheese: Real Convenience Food) Now this sounds like a salad that I would enjoy eating. Good and healthy for you too.

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  9. This sounds like great and simple to make salad to have on hand, thank you for sharing with us.

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