Sunday, May 16, 2021

Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad #SundayFunday

 

What is umami? 

Taking its name from Japanese, umami is a pleasant savory taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products. As the taste of umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavors, most people don’t recognize umami when they encounter it, but it plays an important role making food taste delicious.  (source: Umami Information Center)

Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad

Welcome.  The Sunday Funday Bloggers are sharing recipes with Umami today..............
Sue of Palatable Pastime is hosting today and invited us to join her in sharing foods with Umami.  Fun topic Sue!!!

Umami is that flavor gotten from MSG that makes Asian food taste so delicious but has gotten a bad rap even though the FDA has stated that it is recognized as safe and it undeniably makes food taste much better.  Everything in moderation, I say.  

Many foods that we eat and enjoy every day contain natural umami.  Mushrooms, Aged Cheeses, Seaweeds, Green Tea, Soy Based Products, etc.  For today's event I decided to go with Blue Cheese.

Let's see what umami dishes the others are serving up....................

Sunday Funday

Recipes with Umami

Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad pin

I love tomato salads most when tomatoes are in season, picked off the vine, sliced, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper....my stomach grumbles thinking about it.  They are perfect just like that but every once in a while I add other items as in this Tomato and Bread Salad, or this salad in which I included cucumbers along with the umami of blue cheese.

The problem being that the tomato season is short in Michigan.  We get tons of them but all at the same time.  Luckily tomatoes are easily preserved for cooking but unfortumately they don't keep well for fresh eating.  So during the off months I turn to cherry or grape tomatoes which, while not as wonderful as freshly grown and picked, are much, much better than those mealy, tasteless, large tomatoes available from the grocer.  Another good substitute I have found are Campari tomatoes which seem to be flavorful all year long.  

For this recipe, I picked up a medley of small tomatoes and a blue cheese from Denmark.  I dressed it simply and enjoyed it as an afternoon snack. So very delicious.........



salad, tomatoes, blue cheese, umami,
Salad, Vegetables
American
Yield: 2 servings
Author: Wendy Klik
Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad

Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad

A medley of tiny tomatoes, pure extra virgin olive oil, salty, sharp blue cheese and freshly cracked ground pepper.
Prep time: 5 MinTotal time: 5 Min

Ingredients

  • 1 pint assorted snacking tomatoes
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 1-2 oz. Dansk Blue Cheese, crumbled
  • Freshly cracked peppercorns

Instructions

  1. Halve and plate the snacking tomatoes.  Drizzle with olive oil and a few grinds of cracked peppercorns.  Sprinkle with the blue cheese and enjoy.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

167.22

Fat (grams)

13.23

Sat. Fat (grams)

4.96

Carbs (grams)

7.64

Fiber (grams)

2.27

Net carbs

5.37

Sugar (grams)

4.44

Protein (grams)

6.12

Sodium (milligrams)

252.26

Cholesterol (grams)

15.95
Created using The Recipes Generator


13 comments:

  1. Oh how I love fresh tomatoes - this looks like the perfect start to a meal!

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  2. Love tomatoes. This recipe looks delicious.

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  3. You are so right -- the tomato season here in Michigan is pathetically short, though our tomatoes are _wonderful_!! Oddly, I think the tastiness of some off-season tomatoes has been improving in the last few years.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. We do have the best tomatoes in my humble opinion. Thanks for stopping by Mae.

      Delete
  4. I love tomatoes in salad and the different color of tomatoes make these even more delicious.

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  5. It's not quite tomato season here yet. Soon! I can't wait to try this.

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  6. Love tomato salads any time of the year. Haven't tried it with blue cheese but definitely would love to try. Two favorites in one dish :)

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  7. Simple and healthy salad, perfect for any day

    ReplyDelete

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