Easy Peasy Caprese Salad is just that – easy peasy! Four ingredients and five minutes of your time and voilà, a mouthful of deliciousness! This recipe is a “nod” to the more traditional caprese salad of sliced tomatoes and sliced mozzarella cheese with fresh basil leaves picked from the stem, all laid out on a beautiful platter and drizzled with olive oil. But, today, I didn’t have whole tomatoes to cut into slices or whole mozzarella to slice. So grape tomatoes it is!
Does this ever happen to you – you look in the vegetable drawer and are horrified to find veggies that are a little, well, tired? Unfortunately, this happens to me more frequently than I’d like people to know. Oh, I have my excuses:
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there’s just the two of us, so we can’t eat our fresh food fast enough.
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Or, this one – we live about 8 miles from the nearest grocery store, so “running to town” takes a little extra effort and time, and in my “toot sweet” life, time is a premium commodity. So, I over buy on the fresh fruits and vegetables and then I clamor to use them up before they “expire”!
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And this one – my refrigerator is so packed at an given time that things “disappear” in a black hole only to reappear when they are past their prime!
Today, for this Easy Peasy Caprese Salad, it was all about using slightly tired grape tomatoes and leaves from a basil plant that was on its last legs. But, I wasn’t about to feed the coyotes! They get enough in the way of yummy scrapes from my kitchen (see my earlier post, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow).
So, here’s what you do:
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Take a handful of tired, shriveled {just kidding!} grape tomatoes (I used about 20), slice them in half lengthwise.
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Next, take 4 or 5 basil leaves (also shriveled), stack them and roll them together like a cigar {again, I’m just kidding about the shriveled part – just keeping it real because on the day I photographed this salad, that’s what I had in my kitchen!). Notice the blurry picture of me holding the rolled basil leaves together in the picture above? You try holding rolled basil leaves together on a chopping board and taking a picture with your iPhone in your other hand! Once you have them tightly rolled, slice the basil into thin chiffonade strips.
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Open packets of string cheese and cut into coins.
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Place the three above ingredients in a bowl and toss to mix.
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Add a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette dressing and mix to combine.
That’s it! Amazing what you can do with shriveled tomatoes and basil! And, if you like this recipe, I’m sure you’ll like my Easy Caprese Skewers – great finger food for a party! Speaking of parties, the recipe below serves two, but you can easily increase this and make it for a crowd, or a potluck (it travels well; I know from experience because I used to pack it for lunch all the time with the dressing added and let it marinade together – yum!).
Here’s the recipe:
Easy Peasy Caprese Salad
Four ingredients, five minutes – this recipe couldn’t be easier and is a great little salad that goes easily with many different main dishes.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 20 grape tomatoes, sliced lengthwise
- 4 basil leaves
- 2 packages of string cheese
- 3 tablespoons of Newman’s Own Lite Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
Instructions
- Divide grape tomatoes into 2 salad bowls.
- Stack basil leaves and roll into a cigar shape, holding tightly.
- Slice rolled basil leaves into thin chiffonade slices.
- Divide sliced basil into two portions and sprinkle over sliced tomatoes.
- Remove string cheese from packages and slice into coins.
- Divide string cheese into two portions and add to tomatoes and basil.
- Gently toss ingredients in each bowl.
- Add salad dressing to each bowl and toss again.
Hey Carole, Love the coffee banana protein smoothie! I always peel the bananas, cut them in half and place them in a freezer bag so that when I want one its already prepped and ready to toss into the blender. You can take out as many (or few) as you want and put the rest back in the freezer for the next day. E-Z! Thanks for all the great recipes. I just bought the book today and plan to start the diet on Aug 1st when I return from Louisville, KY. Having you share recipes that are within the diet is very helpful!!! Thank you!
p.s. I have discovered that I either need to lose some lbs. or buy a new wardrobe in the next size UP! Hell, NO, I say! If a new wardrobe is in order, it will be a size DOWN! Good luck to you, too! I’m happy to be sharing this experience with you!!!!! xoxxoxo
Hi, Becky! What a nice comment! I love (no pun intended!) the idea about the bananas. Works way better than trying to peel freezing cold bananas! I’ll do that from now on. Many more recipes to come…stay tuned!