Tomato, Cucumber, and Red Pepper Salad

Recently, I discovered I like red, orange and yellow bell peppers. It turns out they are rather sweet, pleasantly crunchy, and much better for snacking than their green counterparts.

I also discovered that I like vinaigrettes. When I was about 12, my dad took me to Trader Joe's and he bought a bottle of balsamic vinegar. Boring story, except that on the way home, while stopped at a red light, my dad opens the bottle, pours vinegar into the cap and drinks it. Plain. He then says, "Try this," and gives me a capful of balsamic vinegar to drink.

I drink it. Blech! It is gross. I sputter. I gag! It ruins any sort of vinegar or vinaigrette until I am 32 years old. Funny, right?

This Tomato, Cucumber, and Red Pepper Salad doesn't exactly have a vinaigrette. Well, maybe it is. I love how savory the dressing is without being overpowering. I adore feta, so unless you are a hard-core vegan, add it in. The peppers are sweet and flavorful. Try using english cucumbers, or a home-grown aremenian cucumber, because they seem to weep less after being tossed with the dressing and they stay crisper longer.

Also, may I brag for a moment about my garden tomatoes? We grew over 30 tomato plants this year because I can tomatoes for my husband's spaghetti habit. We have spaghetti once a week and then my husband eats the leftovers for lunch all week long. This requires 1 quart of garden-grown, home-canned tomatoes each week. 52 quarts a year. Lots of tomatoes. Today, after canning 13 quarts, I wanted to eat some fresh tomatoes. So, I went out back to the garden, picked 3 beautiful tomatoes, and made this delicious and fresh Tomato, Cucumber, and Red Pepper Salad.

If you want to take this Tomato, Cucumber, and Red Pepper Salad to the main dish level, add chickpeas or even grilled chicken. Either way, try it soon while the farmers markets are still full of fresh and flavorful produce!

Tomato, Cucumber, and Red Pepper Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 cups cucumber, seeded and chopped
• 2 cups fresh tomatoes, chopped and seeded
• 1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 2 tbs red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• freshly cracked pepper, to taste
• 4 oz crumbled feta
• fresh cilantro, mint, or basil, to taste

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine chopped vegetables. 
2. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, juice, garlic, salt. Pour over vegetables and toss. 
3. Add feta and fresh herbs, if desired. 

Bake the bread. Share the slices.