Green Salad with Cilantro and Cherry Tomatoes

Name: Green Herb Salad with Cilantro and Cherry Tomatoes
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Cilantro 1 bunch; Mixed herbs (green basil, dill, parsley) 1 bunch; Mint a few leaves (optional); Green onion 2-3; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Cherry tomatoes 6-8; Yellow tomato 1; Olive oil 3-4 tbsp; Balsamic (wine) vinegar 1-2 tsp; Salt a pinch of fine salt; Sugar 0.5 tsp (2 g); Black pepper to taste; Dried hot pepper a pinch, coarsely ground (optional); Lettuce or romaine leaves for serving (optional)

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15 mins

When spring arrives and the first young vegetables come in, we always make a green salad: a mix of young tomatoes, green onions and plenty of fresh herbs such as cilantro, dill, parsley and basil. The salad is dressed with olive oil, black pepper and young garlic. We usually serve it with boiled new potatoes with dill and sour cream, just as my grandmother always did.

This herb and young vegetable salad comes together fast. By the time the new potatoes are cooked, the salad is ready and you can sit down to lunch right away. Most of the greens here are cilantro, the young shoots of coriander. A salad with cilantro and other herbs is full of vitamins, and fresh greens are good for you in general. Honestly, it is a mystery to me why many people dislike cilantro. I think it is a prejudice, nothing more.

To me, coriander leaves have a delicate, pleasant flavor and aroma, and they are perfect for a vitamin-rich green salad. Cilantro is also very often used in meat dishes. The Caucasian dish satsivi is made with a sauce based on cilantro and walnuts. Georgian kharcho is a beef soup seasoned with fresh cilantro. In Italian cuisine, cilantro often goes into cold appetizers, antipasti, and often it is just a simple herb salad.

In modern cooking, a salad means a complex mixture of chopped vegetables, mushrooms, meat or poultry and so on. They say various herbs are often added to salads. The especially “advanced” cooks call anything chopped and covered in mayonnaise a salad. But in Ancient Rome, which had no tomatoes, peppers or other familiar vegetables yet, they made a salad of greens: wild and cultivated salad leaves with various herbs, onion and garlic, dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

A green salad can be made from nothing but fresh aromatic herbs with some spices, garlic and onion. This is how you can make an excellent lavash appetizer with herbs , which replaces bread at lunch very well, especially when served with fried meat or when you are making Serbian ushtipci.

A simple herb salad can contain just one aromatic herb, whatever grows in your garden or is easy to buy at the local market. At the beginning of summer there is always dill and parsley, young cilantro, mint and basil. You can add lettuce, endive and other salad leaves to the green salad. For the dressing I recommend a light mix of natural olive oil with garlic, black pepper and balsamic or wine vinegar.

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Ingredients

2 servings

Cilantro 1 bunch
Mixed herbs (green basil, dill, parsley) 1 bunch
Mint a few leaves (optional)
Green onion 2-3
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Cherry tomatoes 6-8
Yellow tomato 1
Olive oil 3-4 tbsp
Balsamic (wine) vinegar 1-2 tsp
Salt a pinch of fine salt
Sugar 0.5 tsp (2 g)
Black pepper to taste
Dried hot pepper a pinch, coarsely ground (optional)
Lettuce or romaine leaves for serving (optional)

Step-by-step recipe

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How to prepare the herbs

For juiciness and volume, I advise adding tomatoes to the green salad. In most cases tomatoes go well with all the ingredients of vegetable salads.
Soak and dry the herbs. First put all the herbs in cold water so they become crisp rather than limp. By the way, this way of storing herbs with pre-soaking has proven itself well. Dry all the herbs thoroughly. This is important, otherwise the herb salad will be watery.
Tear and chop the herbs. Pull all the leaves off the dill, parsley and basil sprigs and chop them coarsely. Ideally, tear them into pieces with your fingers rather than cutting with a knife. If you decided to use mint in the green salad, pull off and chop its leaves too. Chop the green onion tops as for green onion and egg salad, and add them to the herbs. Cilantro can be chopped together with its juicy stems, just cut off the roots.
Season the herbs. Put all the prepared herbs in a large bowl. Sprinkle with a pinch of fine salt and add 0.5 tsp regular sugar (2 g). If you like, add a pinch of coarsely ground dried hot pepper or season with black pepper. Stir the herbs and leave for 5 mins so the sugar and salt dissolve.

How to assemble the salad

Chop the tomatoes and garlic and mix them with the herbs. Wash the tomatoes and pat them dry. Cut the small cherry tomatoes into quarters. A yellow tomato will add bright color to the green salad. Peel the tomato and remove the seeds. Cut the yellow tomato into large cubes. Peel the garlic and chop it finely with a knife. It is better not to use a grater, as it gives too much garlic juice.
Mix the herbs, garlic and tomatoes.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with 1-2 tsp of balsamic or wine vinegar. The amount of vinegar is up to you. It is better not to use lemon juice: it is too aromatic and overpowers the delicate scent of the herbs. Season the oil with black pepper and whisk it with a fork, the mixture emulsifies easily.

Serving

Dress the salad and divide it among bowls. You can dress the green salad with the oil in the mixing bowl before dividing it, or simply pour the dressing over the cilantro salad right in the serving bowl and not stir it. Divide the appetizer among small salad bowls or ramekins. If you like, the olive oil and vinegar dressing can be served separately.
Serve the salad on lettuce leaves. If the herb salad is served in a small bowl, you can put it on lettuce or romaine leaves laid across the bottom. Romaine is the best green for the traditional Caesar salad recipe. The green salad goes perfectly with boiled new potatoes seasoned with dill and garlic, and with homemade sour cream, my grandmother’s recipe, village-style new potatoes.
There is no need to chill the green salad before serving. At room temperature it tastes best and keeps the delicate aroma of the herbs and garlic. As a bonus, I recommend cutting a piece of thin lavash, laying 2-3 lettuce leaves on it and rolling it up. It is a great alternative to bread, even the freshest.

Calories and macros

265 kcal

Serving ≈ 210 g

Protein3 g4% of kcal
Fat25 g84% of kcal
Carbs8 g12% of kcal

100 g130 kcalProtein 1.4 gFat 12 gCarbs 3.8 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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