Green tomato salad

The best way to beat the onslaught of the summer heat is, I find, to indulge in food that cool the system and are easy on digestion. We have to remember when the body is loaded with heavy food , the work involved in digesting turns up the core body temperature and leaves one drained rather than refreshed. Food must always be used to nourish and not deplete . Once we start thinking along those lines , we won’t be inclined to indulging in the wrong foods too often.

As I write this , the day’s heat hasn’t yet got to me and I attribute that to the big bowl of cool organic watermelon chunks that I had for breakfast along with two crisp slices of Cafe V’s rye and walnut bread with a dollop of home made strawberry preserve. It does make one helluva difference in getting through the day !

Strappy dresses and shorts will help no doubt but I’m thinking that’s not really an option in Coimbatore… yet ! 😉 , so for now will stick to comfy cottons and tuck into all the delicious bounty that nature throws up for us during summer….

So , green tomatoes ! …not really a traditional Indian ingredient is it ?! My fascination for green tomatoes started when I was about 13 and i watched this movie called Fried Green Tomatoes…it was a movie that stayed in my head for all that it focused on… love , friendship , self-worth but also about green tomatoes.

Over the years I’ve made fried green tomatoes just a couple of time , always guilty that I’m not ‘allowing’ the tomatoes to ripen but now that I’m growing my own produce ,I’ve taught myself to appreciate the plant at every stage. An errant bough from our sappota tree at home fell with a whoosh and knocked off a few tomatoes off the vine.

There they lay , all plump , un-bruised and in a very tempting shade of green. You can see the colour in the pictures. As I carried the lot into my kitchen , it was the texture and colour that prompted this salad. As  most of my recipes originate with whatever I have at home at that point , this one too was created along those lines. And when you have a family like mine that ooh and aah their way through every mouthful , you wanna give each recipe your best…. It’s delicious in it’s simplicity,with just the flavours of lemon ,salt and jalapeno to accentuate the freshness alongside honey and mint that’s added to bring in that much needed balance of flavours.

I mention organic and home grown , not for anything else but for the fact that I honestly think it makes for a difference in taste . It’s entirely up to you what you like to choose, no judgements here. The only thing I recommend is that when you eat ,do so with your mind as well. Gratitude for food is a great ingredient for wellness !

… For dinner we added some yellow cherry tomatoes to the left over salad.