Indian-Style Tomato Salad

As the summer comes to a close, here is a fun tomato salad recipe to try out before all you're left with is pink, grainy winter tomatoes (sorry to be a debby downer, but it's the truth). I used these crazy zebra-esque tomatoes from the farmer's market. If you look closely in the pictures, you can see their yellow striations.

This salad was inspired by the boyfriend. One night many moons ago, he threw some cumin and salt into a bowl of tomatoes and told me that is how his mom usually serves them (plus onions). I was extremely skeptical of mixing cumin and raw tomatoes (What is this world coming to?!, I thought). But then I slipped my spoon into the bowl and plopped a chunk in my mouth. Cumin made the tomatoes come alive. Ba-zinga! as Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory would say.

This recipe is a twist on that dish- with garlic, cilantro, rice wine vinegar, and chili peppers added to mimic the traditional Indian salad, kachumber. Kachumber is usually made with cucumbers, tomatoes, chopped onion, lemon juice and chili peppers, and served as an accompaniment to meals.

Indian-Style Tomato Salad
Serves 1-2 (see note)

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tbsp olive or canola oil
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white vinegar)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• minced chili peppers, to taste
• salt, to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients together in bowl. Chow down!

Note: This can serve 2 as a side dish, or 1 as a main meal, with some protein added in. Pan-fried tofu would provide a tasty texture contrast.