I get really excited as different fruits and veggies come into season. Whether in my garden or a neighbors’, at the farmers market or in my weekly CSA box. Tomatoes, especially the beautifully vibrant heirloom varieties, that is my favorite time of the season. If those don’t feel/taste like summer. I don’t know what does.

This vibrant and fun vegan take on the traditional caprese salad celebrates all that is great about summer!  Instead of mozzarella, I substitute creamy avocado, which works so well with these flavors. I had some beautiful basil from my garden, some red onions from my friend Dan’s garden plus some beautiful heirloom tomatoes and an avocado from the local farmers market. It doesn’t get much more fresh than that.

When produce is that fresh and local, you hardly have to do anything to it. The very light flavor from the olive oil and the white balsamic vinegar allow the fresh summer flavors of this salad to really shine. Since there are so few ingredients to this salad, make sure to choose a high quality olive oil and vinegar.

Do you have a garden, do you get a weekly CSA box or do you frequent your local farmers market in the summer?

[print_this]Heirloom Tomato and Avocado Salad – Gluten-Free + Vegan

Serves 2-4

• 2 lbs heirloom tomatoes (about 2 to 3 medium/large tomatoes), diced*
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 very small red onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, torn or roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar (regular balsamic will work, as well)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Place the diced tomatoes into a serving bowl, add in the avocado, onion and basil. Drizzle the vinegar and olive oil over top. Season with salt and pepper. Give everything a gentle toss. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

You can serve this immediately or let it sit a bit to marinate. I like how much more intense the flavors get as it sits for about half an hour.

* you can also slice the tomatoes or quarter them, if you wish. Mine were just so large that dicing seemed to work the best and kept a nice uniform size to everything in the salad. [/print_this]

This recipe originally appeared on the Free People Blog BLDG 25.

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