Try it. It will surprise you! Welcome to Day 12 of the inaugural Holiday Salad Marathon, where I’m sharing 30 salads in a row through to Christmas Eve – just for something different to the usual sugar-loaded baking countdowns!! Today, something FRENCH(ish):
Tomato Salad with Olive Tapenade
This is a great tomato salad reminiscent of the south of France with the use of black olive tapenade. You can throw this together in minutes if you’ve already got a pre-bought jar of olive tapenade lying around in your fridge, else it’s worth making the tapenade yourself from scratch if you’re just looking to make a tomato salad that’s a little different! The salty tang of the olive tapenade adds flavour interest while bringing out the sweetness in the juicy tomatoes. A few sprigs of parsley (or basil or oregano if you prefer) to garnish, and you have a colourful plate beaming with summer vibes on your table.
What you need for this Tomato Salad
Here’s what you need – this includes the ingredients for making the olive tapenade from scratch: Really, the only key thing that matters in the above is JUICY RIPE TOMATOES!! You could just slice them, sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil and it’s STILL knock-your-socks-off good! Anchovy? I get it, not everyone likes anchovies. You can leave them out. If so, add another teaspoon of capers instead.
What is tapenade?
Tapenade is the French name for an intensely savoury, salty paste made of olives, capers, anchovies, garlic and olive oil, usually associated with Provence in the south of France. Other Mediterranean countries have similar preparations, but we’re making the French version here. It’s typically used as a condiment, a dip or a spread. In our case, we’re using it as a kind of dressing or “pesto” as it goes so well with fresh tomatoes. And it is literally a dump-and-blitz job (I use my NutriBullet here). We do make more tapenade than we need because it’s impractical and more difficult to make small quantities of tapenade. But having leftovers is a bonus with this recipe because tapenade is wonderfully versatile and I provide suggestions for uses later in the post. You can never have too much! Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
Life of Dozer
When mum was tasked with picking up a simple dog bed for Dozer for the studio, the next thing I saw her doing was THIS 😂: These salads are in addition to my regular 3 new recipes a week. Because aren’t you bored of the usual tomato-cucumber-lettuce garden salad routine?? Click here to see all the Holiday Salad Marathon recipes to date, or sign up for instant updates and you’ll receive a free email alert whenever I publish a new salad! 🙂
