Salad with smoked breast tomatoes cheese and cucumbers

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   How to make a delicious salad with smoked breast, tomatoes, cheese and cucumbers? Very simple! First, prepare the necessary ingredients according to the list. Tomatoes can be used regular or cherry. I have small Baku tomatoes - they are larger than cherry, but smaller than ordinary tomatoes. The vegetable part can be supplemented or replaced according to your taste.

2. Step 2:

   

   Peel the red onion and cut it into thin rings or half rings. Marinate the onion in a mixture of vinegar and sugar for 20 minutes. Then drain the marinade. You can use any vinegar - I have white wine, but apple, red wine or ordinary table 9% will do.

3. Step 3:

   

   Peel the smoked breast from the skin and bones and cut into thin slices. You can replace the breast with meat from smoked hams.

4. Step 4:

   

   Cut tomatoes into slices. If you have cherry tomatoes - halves. Tomatoes need juicy, but dense. Soft fruits do not keep their shape well, in the process of slicing and cooking they will spread into a shapeless mass and spoil the appearance of the dish.

5. Step 5:

   

   Cut cucumbers into semicircles or, if they are small in diameter, into circles.

6. Step 6:

   

   Peel the bell pepper from the seeds and stalks and cut into strips.

7. Step 7:

   

   Remove the olives and mozzarella from the brine and dry. You can take any cheese for the salad that you like to taste: hard type of Russian or Gouda, soft cheeses such as cottage cheese, processed or feta. Since my salad has Italian dressing, I decided to make the whole salad in the Italian style, so I chose pickled mozzarella in balls.

9. Step 8:

   

   Dry the salad leaves. Tear the salad leaves with your hands into smaller pieces. I have a regular Moscow salad. You can replace it with a ready-made mixture of salad leaves.

10. Step 9:

    

    Wash the basil and tear off the leaves from the twigs.

11. Step 10:

    

    Now prepare the Italian dressing. Olive oil is usually taken for it, but any vegetable oil will do. Mustard - Dijon or grainy, as you like. Usually 1 tbsp of white or red wine vinegar is added to the dressing, but there is already pickled onion in vinegar in the composition. Therefore, I did not add vinegar to the dressing.

12. Step 11:

    

    Finely chop the basil. If you don't have fresh basil, replace it with dried basil. And in the form of fresh herbs, take parsley. If you find fresh oregano - great, then you don't have to take dried. Salad with fresh herbs is always tastier than with dried.

13. Step 12:

    

    Combine olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper in a bowl. Whisk everything thoroughly with a fork until smooth.

14. Step 13:

    

    Put the lettuce leaves on a plate. Spread the smoked chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, cheese, red onion and olives on top. Sprinkle everything with fresh basil leaves.

15. Step 14:

    

    Pour Italian dressing over the salad and serve immediately. Bon appetit!