Tomato Salad Recipe
Adapted from Chef Mike Portley from Humbug, Newcastle
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Serves: 4 as an entree
Ingredients Needed
- 400g/14ozs ripe heirloom tomatoes or cherry tomato medley
- 1/2 ripe yellow peach (around 90g/3ozs)
- 150g/5ozs smooth ricotta
- 1 golden eschallot, finely diced
- 1 garlic cloves, peeled, sliced ultra thinly
- 3-4 medium shiso leaves
- 10 mint leaves
- 75ml/2.7flozs white balsamic vinegar or white condiment
- 75ml/2.7flozs Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt flakes and black pepper
Step-By-Step Cooking Instructions
Preparing the Ricotta Base
Step 1 - Place the ricotta in a food processor and whizz until smooth and silky. Spread out on the base of a serving plate.
Assembling the Salad
Step 2 - Slice peach into thin 1mm/0.04inch half moons. Spread out on a tray. Cut tomatoes in 1/2cm/0.2inch slices or if using cherry tomatoes, halve. Add on top of the peach slices. Season well with salt and pepper. Scatter garlic pieces on top and finely diced eschallot. Tear shiso and mint and add them to the mix. Dress liberally with white balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Toss with your hands to dress and then spoon on top of the ricotta.
Personal Note
So a little health update from me sort of related to this recipe. After a few months of seeing my cardiologist I had undergone some blood tests and a cardioangiogram. I actually didn't realise that Asian people really differ from other races in terms of their health. He explained that Asian people are prone to fatty liver because any fat is stored viscerally (around the organs) while in Caucasian people it is stored subcutaneously (under the skin). And while Asian people might look skinny or slim they could be hiding issues so that is why he got me to do the cardioangiogram. This is where they inject you with a dye and you get under the MRI machine and they see if there are any blockages in your arteries.
I went to see him to get my results. When I knocked on the door and came in he was sitting behind his desk looking at his computer with his head in his hands. "Have you been doing anything different?" he asked me.
"Ummm I'm eating lots of avocadoes and fish oils," I stammered because why the serious face?
"Because these results are very, very good," he said swinging around his monitor so that I could see them. All of the results from the blood test were exactly where they needed to be. Then he pointed at a figure that said 0. The MRI showed that I had zero blockages in the arteries around my heart. Honestly nobody was more surprised than me.
"Do you want the bad news?" he asked and I nodded. My liver was showing signs of the start of fatty liver. I don't drink much at all but I do love carbs and that is where I get into issues. I love pasta, bread, noodles and rice - pizza is one of my favourite foods! And I also have to cut down on things like potatoes, sweet potato, corn and pumpkin. He said salads and lean meats are good so this salad was the first thing that I made and I served them with chicken tenderloins in the air fryer. So Dear Reader, I'll still be loving carbs but just from a distance.
So tell me Dear Reader, are you on a special diet? Do you have foods that you are supposed to avoid?