We tried to grow tomatoes in our garden this year and thought we had failed miserably. This summer was one of the hottest I ever remember in Seattle, and our plants were wilting and suffering despite our best efforts to give them enough water and shade. However, this September once things had a second to cool off a bit, our tomato plants returned to life!
What a nice surprise this was, and let me tell you how delicious these tomatoes are too. My husband swears he can never buy a tomato from a store again… which I think will be hard seeing that we don’t have the greenest thumbs, but we can sure enjoy these while we have them!
In our house we eat vegetarian a few times a week, especially always on Mondays (hence my “Meatless Mondays” posts I try to share regularly if you are a follower). I had to come up with a beautiful recipe for these delicious ripe tomatoes, and they have SO MUCH FLAVOR that I thought they would do well as the centerpiece of a vegetarian dish where they could truly shine!
There are a lot of flavors in this, but all ones that mesh well together… balsamic, olive oil, rosemary, garlic… my staples 🙂 So that they don’t come off as overwhelming, I thought that spreading goat cheese on the toast first would be a nice touch to add some substance and some subtle creamy flavor.
- 4 regular size tomatoes, diced
- 1 loaf of crusty bread (like Como), sliced thin
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 ounces plain goat cheese
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2-4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
Start by turning your sliced bread into croutons. I did this by lightly buttering each side of the bread, then toasting them in a pan until they firm up and turn slightly golden. If I was having a lazy day I suppose I would have just toasted them in a toaster, but I think they turn out almost too crunchy that way.
Dice your tomatoes, and place them in a medium bowl. Add your olive oil, garlic and salt. Set aside.
Take your toasts, and spread a layer of goat cheese, then spoon on a few tablespoons (however much you want) of the tomato mixture. Continue to do this until all your toasts have been topped!
Sprinkle a small amount of the chopped rosemary over each of the toasts… just enough to add a little color and flavor.
Last, drizzle a little balsamic over the tomato mixture on each of the toasts. I felt the balsamic was coming out of my bottle a little too fast, so I would pour it into a spoon and drizzle over my tomato toasts from there.
If you wanted to make these party-sized, you could instead use a thin baguette to make your croutons and create bite-sized toasts instead.
I hope you enjoy!
X.O. – Abbey Co.
What a delicious idea! I really want to grow a few of my own plants, but I’m terrible at gardening!xx
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I have to admit I made such similar crostini for friends this summer, and it was a great party snack 🙂
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Yum!
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I love that you grow tomatoes and this meal looks delicious. I would replace the dairy but look for an alternative and make. x
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I think the tomatoes and olive oil would be lovely on their own… or you could add some kind of basil pesto.
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Yum! Looking forward to trying this!
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It is extra delicious with fresh tomatoes 😋
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This looks so yummy, I’m totally craving this right now!
Love, Elena
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