Tomatoes with Onion and Sour Cream
This is a simple village salad, the way my grandmother used to make it: fresh tomatoes and onion dressed with homemade sour cream. You can take this recipe as one of my memories. It is ideal if the tomatoes are fresh and just picked from the vine in the garden. Then they have a special aroma, they are slightly warmed by the sun and incredibly tasty. And homemade sour cream for the dressing has an unbeatable flavor.
At any market in summer you can buy many different tomatoes: big and small, red, pink, yellow and even black.
When making this dish, do not cut the vegetables too small. It is even better if each tomato is cut into 6-8 wedges. You can leave the seeds in, so the juice from the vegetables mixes with the sour cream and makes an excellent dressing, which for many people is the main part of the salad: they simply drink it at the end or dip fresh bread into it. Use a “sweet” onion, without sharp bite or smell. In the village we usually took purple onions.
A favorite salad from childhood: fresh garden tomatoes, sweet onion and homemade sour cream.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Fresh tomatoes (assorted) 1 kg
- Large sweet onion 1
- Homemade sour cream 1–2 tbsp
(15–30 g) - Coarse rock salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper optional
- Herbs optional
Step-by-step recipe
Cutting the vegetables
Tomatoes with onion is a homemade salad. It is extremely simple and made from easily available ingredients.
Choose the tomatoes. If you cannot pick them in your own garden, any local market at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn has a huge choice of vegetables, including multicolored tomatoes, both tiny and huge. We usually buy the small ones for the Italian bread salad panzanella.
Wash the tomatoes and pat them dry with a towel.
Cut them into wedges, thick or thin as you like. Just do not cut them too small or too thin.
Peel the onion. What I like most in summer vegetable salads is a young purple onion with its green, not yet fully dried tops. Alternatively, a large sweet onion also works great, and it is easy to find in shops.
Cut the onion lengthwise into thin strips and add it to the tomatoes in a bowl.
Dressing
Season the tomatoes and onion with coarse rock salt and toss.
Leave the salad for 2–3 mins so the salt dissolves.
Add 1–2 tbsp of homemade sour cream (15–30 g) as a dressing. Good store-bought sour cream with 15–20% fat will do as well.
By the way, for fewer calories and a distinct flavor you can add plain soured milk (prostokvasha) instead of sour cream. It makes an excellent dressing for vegetable salads like this.
Mix the vegetables with the sour cream.
Serving
Divide the salad among prepared serving bowls. Small deep bowls are fine. If you like, garnish the salad with a sprig of herbs. You can add a little pepper before serving, using freshly ground black pepper.
Serve fresh bread with this appetizer; it is especially good. We serve the salad as a dish of its own or alongside grilled meat, such as pork neck or a bone-in pork chop. As a dish of its own it is even better, especially with fresh bread.
If you are serving it with meat, do not put everything on one plate as a side dish, because the salad runs.
You can add herbs such as cilantro, dill or parsley. They vary the flavor, but the dish will be different.
Calories and macros
80 kcal
Serving ≈ 290 g
- Protein3 g15% of kcal
- Fat3 g31% of kcal
- Carbs10 g53% of kcal
100 g27 kcalProtein 0.9 gFat 0.9 gCarbs 3.3 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
To Get It Right
Tomatoes: ripe and varied
The taste of this salad depends almost entirely on the tomatoes, so it is best in summer and early autumn, with tomatoes from the garden or market. Mix different colors and sizes: red, pink, yellow, black.
If the onion is sharp
Best of all is a young purple onion or a large sweet one. If you only have a sharp yellow onion, scald the sliced onion with boiling water and pat it dry, and the bitterness will go.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Vegetable chopper with handleAliExpress
Adjustable mandoline slicerAliExpress
Peeler with wooden handleAliExpress
Pull chopper for garlic and onionAliExpress
Oil sprayerAliExpress
Kitchen scale up to 5 kgAliExpressQuestions and answers
Do I need to remove the seeds from the tomatoes for the salad?
No. The juice from the vegetables mixes with the sour cream and makes an excellent dressing; for many people it is the main part of the salad, and they simply drink it at the end or dip fresh bread into it.
How do I make a tomato and onion salad with vinegar?
There is no vinegar in this recipe: the tang comes from ripe tomatoes, and the dressing is sour cream mixed with their juice. If you want it tangier, use soured milk instead of sour cream.
Can I make tomato and onion salad ahead of time?
It is better right before serving. Salted tomatoes release juice quickly, and the salad turns watery. You can cut the vegetables ahead, but salt and dress them right before eating.
How many calories are in tomato and onion salad with sour cream?
About 30 kcal: the salad is almost entirely tomatoes, and there is only 1–2 tbsp of sour cream (15–30 g) per 1 kg. With soured milk it comes out even lighter.