Tomato Feta Mint Salad

Tomato Feta Mint Salad is a gorgeous yet straightforward salad to begin our lovely pre-spring here in sunny Florida, combining juicy and delicious red grape tomatoes and beautiful yellow cocktail tomatoes with crisp sliced cucumbers, red salad onions, Feta, and mint.

It’s a gorgeous day here in Sunny Haines City, Florida, and I am harvesting some delicious tomatoes today and thinking  I have a little spring breakout planned for the blog. It’s time, loves. This Florida girl has waited long enough for everyone to thaw out up North.

 

 

Tomato Feta Mint Salad was so simple to dream up today. All I had to do was look at my gorgeous little yellow cocktail tomatoes,  juicy red grape tomatoes, and mint in my garden to know a fantastic salad idea when I saw one.

It’s been a very odd day. I have thought of the last three and half years I spent here at our humble abode located among the citrus farms, feeling kind of sad knowing soon I will be leaving it all behind to go back to South Florida. It’s a bitter-sweet day knowing changes are coming in a short time.

When I first moved here, I could not grasp our location. This city girl was very lost. The nearest Publix was a bit of a drive, not 5 minutes away from our home in Boca Raton. I was not too fond of the clothing stores because I was a little fashionista stuck shopping at stores catered to the locals, not fashion lovers. My first year was such a wake-up call.

I learned to dance under the stars instead of the dance floor to get a little dirty in my garden to let go of all the unnecessary shopping for high-end clothing, shoes, and fancy purses. I learned to love my blue jeans, boots and, yes, t-shirts.

Now it’s almost time to go home to South Florida, and I’m a little sad to leave. Change, however, is a necessity in life, and we all learn to adapt. Kind of like the prelude to Spring today with this recipe…Let’s celebrate the little harvest at my humble little abode while we still can.

 

 

Tomato Feta Mint Salad

• Three cups of grape tomatoes halved

• Twelve yellow cocktail tomatoes halved

• One medium cucumber, peeled and sliced

• One small red salad onion, thinly sliced

• Four ounces crumbled Feta

• 1/3 cup of small mint leaves or chopped

• kosher salt, to taste

• freshly ground pepper, to taste

 

Lemon-Mint Vinaigrette

• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

• One tablespoon Dijon mustard

• One teaspoon sugar

• One clove garlic, minced

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/3 cup  fresh mint leaves

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

 

Preparation for Tomato Feta Mint Salad

Add fresh lemon juice,  Dijon mustard, sugar, minced garlic, virgin olive oil, fresh mint, salt, and ground pepper, blend till smooth.

Note: Warm tomatoes have a more enhanced flavor than refrigerated tomatoes, be sure to let tomatoes come to room temperature before making the salad.

Before getting started on vegetables, be sure to rinse them clean. I like using a bottle mister with a solution of 20% white vinegar and 80% purified water. It does not change the taste and works wonders for any bacteria on plants. Rinse vegetables thoroughly afterward.

Slice the clean red grape and cocktail tomatoes in half using a knife suitable for tomatoes.

Using a paring knife or vegetable peeler, peel the clean medium cucumber, slice, and slice again in halves.

Thinly slice one small red salad onion into rounds. If the onion is a little larger, cut it in half, then thinly slice the onion.

Place tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced onions, feta cheese, and mint leaves in a large enough glass salad bowl to hold all ingredients listed. Season with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Serve undressed with dressing on the side for your guests.

 

 

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