Italian Tomato And Onion Salad

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Tomato and Onion Salad is a basic, quick and easy Italian salad recipe, and It is also versatile. This salad is made with tomatoes, garlic, onion olive oil with a hint of dried oregano. It is an easy side dish that goes well with almost everything.

Check also my Beetroot and Goats Cheese Salad.

You can have it on your own, smother it over some bruschetta's, use it as taco stuffing or alongside your favourite main course. As the olive oil and vinegar run over the crispy red onions and tomatoes sprinkled with a bit of oregano, they saturate the salad with tons of delightful flavours. Crisp, juicy and healthy; you'll surely find this salad making a permanent spot in your kitchen.

What is an Italian Tomato and Onion Salad?

An Italian Tomato and Onion Salad is the most basic salad out there, which also happens to be a perfect combination of both crisp and juicy.

That is, thanks to the onions and tomatoes, which not only go well in any Italian sauce but also complement each other completely raw. In this salad, crisp tomatoes and onions are drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with dried oregano and just a hint of garlic.

What is in this Italian Tomato and Onion Salad?

Tomatoes: The juiciest ones you can find
Red onion: Fresh and crunchy
Garlic: Just a few cloves
Olive oil: The extra virgin kind
Balsamic vinegar: A vinegar popularly belonging to Italy
Kosher salt: A less refined version of salt
Dried oregano: Just what you have at home

How to make this Italian Tomato and Onion Salad?

Before you begin making this salad, it's a good idea to take out all the ingredients and prep them.

Dice the tomatoes and onions to the desired size. We prefer you dice them because it makes the salad more versatile for bruschettas and Tacos. It also ensures you get the crispiness of the onions and juiciness of the tomatoes in every spoonful.

You'd also want to finely dice the garlic. It should be so minutely chopped that you should barely notice it in the salad. Let's face it, nobody likes to have giant chunks of garlic pop up in their mouth.

Once all the fresh ingredients are washed and chopped, you can add them to a mixing bowl.

Once they are added, you can add all the different enrichments and seasonings to the bowl. We mean balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and dried oregano. Finally, add a little Kosher salt as per your liking.

Toss all the ingredients in the mixing bowl until all the flavours are well-mingled among each other.

Bravo! You're done preparing the healthiest multipurpose salad. And wasn't it super easy too?

Top Tips!

When you're dicing the tomatoes, you're sure to squeeze out a lot of juice in the process. If you'd like to save that juice, then chop the tomatoes over a bowl so you can toss them in the salad for extra flavour later.
When shopping for tomatoes, pick the ones that are ripe and plump. However, they should still feel tight to the hand and not mushy and preferable still have the stem attached. These tomatoes are the sweetest and don't go bad or mushy too soon.
It's not necessary to dice the tomatoes; you can also cut them into wedge-shaped slices. The onions, on the other hand, can be sliced thin.
Since there's already a lot of flavour in the salad, taste as you go when adding the kosher salt. You don't want to end up with a salad that's too salty.

Some Variations

There are already plenty of flavours in this tomato and onion salad. Nonetheless, you can think about adding the following ingredients which can spice things up a little more for you:

Fresh Dill: Offers a minty, grassy and slightly tangy flavour.
Parsley: Also a great herb to add to this salad.
Fresh cracked black pepper: We all know this basic spice holds the heart of the Italian cuisine
Fresh Basil: Chop up these herbs and use them to garnish your salad. It adds colour and flavour.
Feta Cheese: A little goes a long way.
Salt: You can use regular salt if that's what you regularly use at home.
Olives: Slice these into small rings, and you'll love these sour delights in every bite.
Colourful Tomatoes: You can add a vast palette of colours to this recipe by including green tomatoes, yellow tomatoes or orange tomatoes.
Chilli flakes: Only if spicy food is something you like!

Serving Suggestions

This Italian Tomato Salad is perfectly appetizing to be savoured on its very own. Although there are so many ways that it can be relished. It can be added to a crisp bruschetta, used in sandwiches or Tacos alongside your favourite form of protein or sauces.

It looks great on the dinner table, served alongside right about any savoury dish of your choice. Whether it's grilled meats and seafood or some Indian Dahl or curry. If there's a salad that goes with anything, it's this Italian Tomato and Onion Salad.

Storage

Make ahead of time: It's a good idea to combine all the seasonings together, like the balsamic vinegar, oregano, and olive oil and save this dressing for when you chop up your salad fresh. This is because the tomatoes, especially the onions, can get soggy if they're made too far ahead of when they are supposed to serve.

Store: In the fridge, you can store this salad for a couple of hours. Although we would like to mention that refrigerating for a prolonged period can dull the tomatoes' flavour.

Just take the salad out of the fridge just a couple of hours before it is served. This will allow the salad to sit at room temperature and regain all the flavours that the tongue can skip if the salad is too cold.

Freeze: You can store it in an airtight container for 2-4 days, but we don't recommend freezing this salad at all.

Recipe FAQs

Aren't cherry tomatoes usually used in salads? Can I use cherry tomatoes in this salad?

Ah yes! How can we forget? Yes, cherry tomatoes are very popularly used in salads. Nonetheless, you've probably noticed that they're much sweeter in taste. Thus, it's really up to you what kind of tomatoes you want to chop up and include in this salad.

In our opinion, the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes tastes beautiful in contrast to all the other flavours in the salad. Not only that, but they also look much more appealing and appetizing as compared to larger chopped tomatoes. So yes, depending on what you like to serve your salad and how you want your tomatoes, you can choose between regular and cherry tomatoes.

Is it a good idea to add other greens to this recipe?

Yes, of course! This is your recipe, and you can do whatever you like. And if you'd like to alter this recipe to fit better your taste buds or nutritional needs, by all means, you should go for it. In fact, cucumbers and bell peppers are a pretty popular addition to this Italian tomato and onion salad. You can also go out and add in your choice of protein to make it a healthy and wholesome dinner.

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