The Perpetual Feast

Yes, it’s potluck time again.  H-N is supposed to bring salads.  I know I have to make something with tomatoes, because I have 6 tomatoes sitting on my counter that will certainly expire before I eat them.  I usually take a chopped salad for lunch – tomato, cucumber, other veggies, some kind of cheese – but I think I had a lot of leftovers to take this week so the tomatoes didn’t get eaten.  Also, I plan to do yard work all morning, so whatever I make has to be something quick and easy.

I decided to make a large version of a chopped salad, dressed up with bread croutons.  I even used a good low fat bottled dressing, which I often use on my lunch salads, rather than home-made.  I had quite a few other vegetables in the house, but I went to the grocery to buy a cucumber and see if there was something interesting I could add.
The vegetables.

And there I found…perlini!

They are not fish eggs or giant tapioca.  They are tiny balls of fresh mozzarella, just waiting to be mixed into a salad.  Let me tell you, they were a sensation in the salad. Great Wow factor. Everyone exclaimed over them.  The salad was pretty much gone by the time I gathered up my bowl to take it home.  This is an imprecise recipe in terms of the veggies.  You can use what you have in the house or what looks good in the store or at the farmers’ market.

Use-Up-the-Tomatoes Salad with Perlini

6 medium tomatoes, cut in 2 inch pieces
1 large cucumber, peeled and mostly seeded, cut in 1 inch pieces
1 sweet pepper (I used yellow), cut in one inch pieces
¼ of a small onion, sliced very thin
about ½ cup broccoli, chopped fine
about 4 ounces of sugar snap peas, sliced in ½ inch pieces
8 ounces of perlini, drained
½ cup light balsamic salad dressing (I use Newman’s Own)
8 slices of oven baked garlic toast, either home-made or from a bag.

Toss together the vegetables, perlini, and salad dressing. Break each of the toasts into 5-6 pieces.  Add to the salad just before serving.  This makes 10 servings, at about 5.8 grams of fat/serving.

I packed the crumbled toast separately in a bag so I could add it after I hauled the salad to the potluck.  That way the bread didn’t get soggy right away.