Summer salads

The colourful tomato salad with fresh basil in Akujiki's post whetted my appetite for more.  I had a BBQ last night and created my own summer salad - it was a great hit!  I had started off thinking that I'd make the tomato salad, but when all I could find was half-dead packaged basil from Colombia on the supermarket shelves, I thought maybe I would have to try something else.  I came across a recipe for a salad using hearts of palm, avocado and tomatoes with lettuce and ended up using a combination of both recipes since I already have all the ingredients at home.  An accidental find as I was going to the check out at the local grocer's made a world of difference to the recipe - a live organic basil plant!   The fragrance from fresh basil practically made the salad.  As with Akujiki's salad, the hard part was finding tasty tomatoes - and I did that by following my nose near the tomatoes section.


The hearts of palm, avocado and tomatoes were all cut into chunks, lettuce torn into bite-sized pieces.  The dressing: 1/3 cup olive oil,  2 tbsp red wine vinegar, fresh ground pepper, 1/4 tsp of sugar, dash of salt. Toss the hearts of palm, avocado and tomatoes in the dressing and spoon onto the bed of lettuce laid out on a platter.  Spread out the basil leaves.  And you've got a refreshing summer salad with a great contrast in textures and flavours.  Bon Appetit!