Vegan tomato salad but make it fancy! We are currently obsessed with black garlic, hence we’re experimenting with this special ingredient a lot lately. To make things extra fancy, we decided to not only add black garlic bread croutons but also to make a really flavorful tomato bread cream, using stale bread (hello low food waste!). We then layer different kinds of tomato and some fennel (because we just can’t live without fennel) and top it with a nutty dressing. The dressing is fresh and vinegary but not overpowering. It complements the flavors of the tomato sauce, the fresh tomato, and the black garlic perfectly.
If you can’t find fancy of tomatoes: don’t worry! It’s mainly for esthetics and only a little bit for taste. You can use any big or medium-sized tomatoes. Just make sure they are ripe, but not too ripe. They should feel firm and not squishy. The sauce is made from older, riper tomatoes, that looked a bit meh. It’s a perfect way to use leftover tomatoes that sat in the fridge just a bit too long.
Vegan Tomato Salad With Black Garlic Croutons
Ingredients
Tomato Bread Cream:
- 1 kg ripe tomatoes feel free to use older uglier ones, as well as the leftovers of the tomatoes you cut for the rest of this recipe, roughly chopped
- 70 g stale bread crust removed
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 shallots sliced thin
- 50 g white wine vinegar
- 100 g white wine
- salt
- pinch of fennel seeds
- 1 dry chili
- olive oil
Black Garlic Croutons:
- 1 stale bread roll use the crusts left over from the tomato cream recipe
- 2 cloves black garlic minced
- salt
- olive oil
Dressing:
- 25 pine nuts toasted
- 20 white wine vinegar
- 25 white balsamic
- salt
- 1 clove black garlic
- 150 olive oil
To Assemble:
- a variety of as many different tomatoes as you can get sliced horizontally.
- ½ fennel shaved thin
- fennel fronds the fuzzy green part
- basil leaves
- chili sliced (optional)
- flaky salt
Instructions
Tomato Bread Cream:
- In a shallow pot, toast the chili and fennel seeds. Add olive oil, shallot, rosemary, thyme and a bit of salt. Deglaze with white wine and white wine vinegar, reduce until almost completely evaporated.Working with high heat, add the tomatoes and salt, in 2-3 batches. You want them to get a direct heat and really liquify rather than steam. After about 3 minutes, once all the tomatoes are broken down, add the bread, let it cook down and reduce for about 20 minutes. Pass through a fine sieve.*Passing is more labor intensive than pureeing, but the result is much creamier and lighter and has a cleaner flavour, so we really recommend you go through with it.
Black Garlic Croutons:
- Mix bread and smashed black garlic, toast in the oven at 160 degrees until golden brown and dry, about 10 minutes.
Dressing:
- Blend all together. Done!
To Assemble:
- Spread a thin layer of the tomato-bread-cream on the bottom of a large plate. Arrange layers of sliced tomatoes, fennel, chili and croutons, carefully drizzle dressing and sprinkle some flaky salt after each layer (not too much dressing!)
Have you tried the recipe? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below and make sure to follow us on TikTok and Instagram!
