Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber & Feta Salad

At the risk of inundating you with salads, I decided to make another chopped veggie salad, hi-lighting tomatoes instead of watermelon. Personally I think if you use a good quality French Feta, you cannot go wrong with almost any veggie combo.

For this salad, I chopped up cucumbers, orange bell pepper and tomatoes, relatively equal amounts of each–it is up to you. The tomatoes were vine ripened from Tennessee—not quite as good as local, but it is early yet for that and I have to give my grocery store props for trying to bring in local stuff in the summer (the cukes were from the same store and grown by the Amish in Ohio). I added salt and pepper, some thinly sliced red onion, a handful of purple basil from the garden (soon I will wish I had planted 2 of those) and extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I wish I had a higher quality vinegar though—I think this salad would be really spectacular with a drizzle of thick, sweet balsamico rather than the more watery common stuff. But since I am not a gazillionaire, watery it is. Then I topped it all with the star of the show, the French Feta, as much as I could find because I love it so much (I had less than one package).

It was wonderful.

Now that greens season is slowing down, I can tell I have another style of salad to play with this summer.

This salad is my submission to the Beat The Heat blogging event, hosted by A Southern Grace. The event hi lights dishes that are prepared without heat, for which this certainly qualifies. It also makes use of summer bounty, a double bonus for hot weather dishes, at least here in North America.