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Fast and tasty
Salad with tomatoes, cheese and crackers

Tomato, Cheese, and Crouton Salad

Tasty, cheap, quick, wholesome — and no mayo! This tomato, cheese, and crouton salad is so good you could eat it every day. It's fresh and bright, with crunchy croutons that play off the juicy tomatoes. Great on its own or alongside other dishes — highly recommend!

Natalia Tsybulskaya

Recipe author

Salad with tomatoes, cheese and crackers

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Tomatoes

200

Hard cheese

Garlic

White bread

300

Vegetable oil

Sour cream

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 16 % 7 g

Fats 36 % 16 g

Carbohydrates 49 % 22 g

261 kcal

GI: 9 / 91 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 30 min

Step 1:

How do you make a salad with croutons and tomatoes? Start by gathering everything you need. Use meaty tomatoes. In-season tomatoes are best, of course, but even off-season you can usually find good-quality ones. Let your nose guide you: real tomatoes should smell like tomatoes. Use any cheese you like — any hard or semi-hard variety works, and so do mozzarella and even blue cheese.
Step 2:

First, let's make the croutons. I find white bread works best for this salad, but you can make croutons the same way from any bread you like. Cut the bread into small cubes. I keep mine small since they're going into a salad — they shouldn't be too big. If you're making croutons for something else, cut them however you like, much larger if you want.
Step 3:

Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a skillet and fry the bread cubes on all sides until crisp and golden.
Step 4:

Transfer the croutons to a separate bowl and season with salt. You can add pepper or other seasonings too.
Step 5:

In the same skillet, heat the remaining oil and add 1 minced garlic clove. I pressed mine, but you can grate it or chop it with a knife.
Step 6:

Cook the garlic for just 20–30 seconds. Watch it closely — garlic burns fast!
Step 7:

Pour the garlic oil over the croutons and toss to coat. Your delicious garlic croutons are ready!
Step 8:

Now for the salad itself. Wash the tomatoes well. Core them and cut into thin wedges. It really doesn't matter how you cut them, though — cubes or rounds work just as well.
Step 9:

Add the second minced garlic clove to the tomatoes.
Step 10:

Grate the cheese and add it to the rest.
Step 11:

Dress the salad with sour cream. (If you'd rather, you can use mayonnaise instead.) Taste and add more salt if needed.
Step 12:

Toss everything together and transfer the salad to a serving bowl.
Step 13:

Serve the salad with the croutons. Add them right before eating, though — otherwise they'll turn soggy.
Step 14:

Enjoy!

You can swap the sour cream for plain unsweetened yogurt. And if you'd rather use mayonnaise as the dressing, it's worth making it yourself — it'll taste better and be better for you.