Marinated Cuc/Tomato/Yellow Pepper Salad with Olive Bread

Recipe from: Carol Booth, Calgary Alberta

Presented By: Miriam Borys

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

6 mini cucumbers

1/2 bag mini tomatoes of your choice

1 large yellow pepper

1 cup of fresh basil 

Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

4 tbsp. red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil or avocado oil

3/4 cup red onion (1/2 small onion) - diced brunoise  (fine dice (1/8th-inch or less)

dash of salt and pepper

1/2 load of day-old bread - cut into bite-sized cubes day old bread . (approximately 6 cups of bread cubes).

Carol has used a baguette for this recipe and it works really well. It just so happened that we had a half loaf of the Artisan Green Olive Terra Bread which was a bit dry for eating the next day but perfect for this salad.

A little hint before you start - add the cubed bread just before serving the salad or the bread could become too saturated with the vinaigrette dressing. 

Procedure:

Rinse all vegetables well before dicing.

Salad Dressing

Dice red onion into a tiny dice. Set aside for now. 

Add dijon and vinegar into a small mixing bowl. Whisk well until combined.

Drizzle in olive oil and continue to whisk until well emulsified.

Add diced onion, salt & pepper and mix well to allow the onions to marinate in the oil mixture.

At this point you could dice the basil (small diced) and add 1 tsp. to the dressing which would allow a more intense basil flavor throughout your salad.

Cut up the vegetables into desired chunks. Add vegetables a mixing bowl.

Pour half of the vinaigrette onto the vegetables and toss well to allow the vegetables to marinate. Just before service add remaining vinaigrette and bread cubes and toss again. Pour salad into a serving dish and serve with your favourite protein…perfect for a hot summers night.  

Leftovers keep well in the fridge and believe it or not the olive bread wasn't overly saturated.

Even though this salad has the three veggies in it you could easily add other hard vegetables like carrots, zucchini and other colored peppers if you wished.

Chef Miriam Borys, B.Ed., MA.

'Cooking Uncovered'
http://www.youtube.com/user/mlborys?feature=mhee
blog: www.cookinguncovered.blogspot.com
Website: www.miriamborys.com

Vinaigrette 

slightly toast the bread cubes

add red onions to marinate until dressing is needed