3-Ingredient Heirloom Tomato Salad Recipe

When it comes to good food, the quality of ingredients often matters far more than the quantity. This is especially true of simple recipes involving the freshest ingredients, like perfectly ripe tomatoes and basil at their summertime best. Besides, when it comes to simplifying dinnertime, there's a lot to be said for cutting down on unnecessary ingredients, giving you more budget-friendly food options that are easy to assemble. 

This 3-ingredient heirloom tomato salad, from the kitchen of recipe developer Jennine Rye, uses only three classic ingredients: tomatoes, feta, and basil, to create a mouthwatering dish that is oozing with rich, savory flavors. To elevate the flavors of this salad, we use heirloom tomatoes for their superior taste as well as their diversity of size, color, and flavor. To further intensify the flavor of these prized tomatoes, they are slow-roasted in the oven to concentrate their flavor, resulting in gloriously caramelized, deeply sweet and savory jewels that make this salad a centerpiece. Paired with plenty of fresh, peppery basil and sharp, salty feta, this salad is a true sensory delight, perfect for celebrating the late summer tomato harvest, all with just three simple ingredients.

To begin this 3-ingredient heirloom tomato salad recipe, first, you will need to gather the ingredients. You will want heirloom tomatoes, feta, and fresh basil leaves. To roast the tomatoes, you will also want a little olive oil as well as salt and pepper to season.

Preheat the oven to 275 F.

Wash and slice the tomatoes so they are roughly evenly sized.

Place the tomatoes into a large baking tray.

Drizzle the tomatoes with the olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.

Place the tray in the oven to slow roast for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven and let the tomatoes cool for 15 minutes.

Roughly chop the basil leaves.

Add the roasted tomatoes to a bowl.

Add the crumbled feta and basil leaves to the bowl.

Drizzle any remaining baking tray juices over the salad and gently toss to combine.

Serve.

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Although this salad is bursting with fresh summery flavor with only 3 ingredients, there are plenty of ways you can add to this recipe depending on your preferences. Firstly, when roasting the heirloom tomatoes, feel free to add layers of flavor with sliced garlic cloves, herbs like thyme or oregano, or even a pinch of smoked paprika to add a subtle smoky sweetness to the final salad.

Avocado makes a dream pairing with this salad, and adds a delicious creamy texture to contrast the juicy tomatoes and salty feta. Another great option, which will add lots of nutrients to this salad as well as bulking it out, is to mix in some beans. We recommend reaching for mild and creamy butter beans as the perfect pairing for this recipe. Other great additions are arugula, to add color and a fresh peppery bite, and olives for their distinctive briny flavor that works really well with the salty feta and sweet, rich tomatoes.

Finishing touches add a lot to a salad, and we love serving this roasted tomato dish with a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts or a toasted seed mixture, which adds plenty of texture along with a nutty finish. Speaking of nuts, walnuts or pecans can also be added and will pair well with the other elements of the dish. If you prefer a herby finish to your salad, we can highly recommend adding gremolata to bring an herbal citrus depth to your tomato dish.

If you've spent much time perusing your local farmers' market, you'll probably have had your eye caught by an offering of heirloom tomatoes. But what exactly is an heirloom tomato? You'll likely have noticed that this type of tomato comes in a wide variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, making it hard to pin down precisely what makes a tomato an heirloom. Instead of being a specific breed of produce, like a Maris Piper potato or a Granny Smith apple, the name heirloom refers instead to tomatoes that fit within a specific set of characteristics. One requirement is that these tomatoes must be open-pollinated, allowing the precise genetics of the plant to be passed down through the seeds, without being crossbred.

There are a vast number of different heirloom tomatoes grown around the world; estimates claim there to be around 3,000 types globally, grown in different regions by different farmers. These tomatoes are called "heirloom" because they are passed down through the generations, with each specific type being selectively bred and reproduced to preserve its unique flavor and qualities. Heirloom tomatoes are commonly prized these days for their superior flavor as well as the beautiful variety of colors and shapes, as they have not been cross-bred with hardier but less flavorful varieties, which are easier for supermarkets to transport and store.

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