If you're tired of your usual lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salads, America's Test Kitchen has you covered. Its new book "The Complete Salad Cookbook" has over 200 recipes for salads of all kinds.
Chef Elle Simone joins New Day NW to show us how to make a recipe from the book!
Cherry Tomato Salad with Mango and Lime-Curry Vinaigrette
SERVES: 4 to 6
ABOUT RECIPE: For this Indian-inspired salad, we tossed quartered cherry tomatoes with a little salt and sugar to help extract some of the liquid and prevent a soggy salad. We then used a salad spinner to separate the tomato liquid from the flesh, reserving the liquid so that we could reduce it to an umami-rich concentrate. Adding shallot, lime juice, and curry powder and drizzling in olive oil turned the concentrate into a dressing, ready to be reunited with the tomatoes. Juicy mango and chopped cilantro filled out this brightly flavored and colored salad. If you don’t have a salad spinner, wrap the bowl tightly with plastic wrap after the salted tomatoes have sat for 30 minutes and gently shake to remove seeds and excess liquid. Strain the liquid and proceed. If you have less than 1/2 cup of juice after spinning, proceed with the recipe using the entire amount of juice you do have and reduce it to 3 tablespoons as directed (the cooking time will be shorter).
INGREDIENTS:
- 1½ pounds cherry tomatoes, quartered
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 1 mango, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- ½ cup toasted slivered almonds
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 shallot, minced
- 4 teaspoons lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon curry powder
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
DIRECTIONS:
1. Toss tomatoes with sugar and salt in bowl and let sit for 30 minutes. Transfer tomatoes to salad spinner and spin until seeds and excess liquid have been removed, 45 to 60 seconds, stopping to redistribute tomatoes several times during spinning. Add tomatoes, mango, almonds, and cilantro to large bowl; set aside.
2. Strain 1/2 cup tomato liquid through fine-mesh strainer into liquid measuring cup; discard remaining liquid. Bring tomato liquid, shallot, lime juice, and curry powder to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat and cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and let cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in oil. Drizzle dressing over salad and gently toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
Segment Producer Joseph Suttner. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.