Brandywine Tomato Salad

This tomato salad is so simple, that it’s hard to believe quite how delicious it is. The reason for this is the ingredients!

I came across this tomato variety years ago when I read James Wong’s book ‘Grow for flavour’. As the title suggests, it’s all about growing food for flavour above anything else.

I’d always liked the idea of a large beefsteak tomato, but they always let me down on the flavour front. Brandywine on the other-hand are absolutely delicious, packed with flavour and very few seeds, making them less wet.

They are not always the most attractive looking tomato, and they can grow to quite enormous sizes.

The heaviest one I’ve grown to date, was over 700 grams!

They also have quite different leaves to a normal tomato plant, much less serrated.

As you slice through the fruit you can see their firm texture, with very few seeds.

As well as making fabulous salad they also make the most delicious tomato sauce. This can be frozen and used for pasta, pizza topping, sweet & sour sauce or just tomato soup.

As these tomatoes get so large, you don’t get as many fruits on each plant. As a result I regularly have only one ripe Brandywine tomato at a time. When this happens I use two or three smaller tomatoes with it.

Ingredients

2 Brandywine Tomatoes or 1 Brandywine & 2-3 smaller varieties
2 Spring onions or 1 very small onion
2tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp White wine Vinegar
1 tsp Wholegrain Mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Peel your small onion or spring onions, chop in half and slice very thinly.

In a small bowl mix the mustard, oil and vinegar together.

After rinsing and drying your tomatoes, slice them thinly with a sharp knife. Place a layer around your dish.

Sprinkle with onion and drizzle some of the mustard liquor. Repeat until all of the ingredients are gone.

Cover and refrigerate. This can be eaten within a few hours, but the flavours develop more if you can resist until the next day. Add the salt & pepper when you are ready to eat.

If the weather allows, it tastes even better eaten outside in the sunshine!
Bon Appétit.