Tomato Love! Bruschetta Salad

If Bruschetta and Panzanella Salad had a love child, this would be it. Sweet cherry tomatoes, light and cooling cucumbers, spicy basil, and garlic rubbed toast all come together in this fabulous summer salad. Normally, bread takes over these recipes, but in this light salad the bread takes a backseat to the produce. Tomatoes and cucumbers shine while the bread is there for flavoring.

I will be totally honest with you, when I planned this salad, I figured it would be good. Little did I know, how much the flavors would explode in my mouth. This is not a salad to be dismissed. This is my new favorite summer salad and I hope you love it as much as I do.

Bruschetta Salad

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
1/2 cup basil, roughly chopped
3 small onions or 1/2 white onion, diced
1 1/2 slice of sourdough bread
1/4 cup olive oil, divided (2 tablespoons/2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, peeled and halved

Toss together onion, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil.

Brush 2 tablespoons of olive oil on bread.

Grill bread. Grill for 2-3 minutes on each side, keep an eye on the bread. It should be toasted with grill marks.

Rub garlic clove halves on bread while bread is still warm.

Cut bread into 1/2 inch cubes and add to tomato mixture.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Toss together until combined.

Recipe Review: I made this salad because I needed to use up some cherry tomatoes. Originally I planned a gluten free pizza but with the hot weather, I was really craving something cool.

This salad did NOT disappoint.

The tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, and onions were light and refreshing. But I have to be honest, what made the salad was the bread.

By rubbing the garlic cloves on the bread when it was still warm, I got the hint of garlic without being overpowered by it. It permeated the rest of the vegetables in a way I had not imagined.

Trust me, you want to make this salad.

Tomato Love

I am posting this recipe as a host to the love bloghop. July is #tomatolove month! Please join in on the #tomatolove fun by linking up any tomato recipe from the month of July 2012. Don’t forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #tomatolove event! The twitter hashtag is #tomatolove.

To check out more tomatolove recipes, check out these great blogs and feel free to link your tomato recipes below.