Tomato and Artichoke Salad with Mint Dressing

Simple fresh ingredients combined together for a delicious and quick plant-based salad. Sweet tomatoes combined with marinated artichokes, piquant red sorrel leaves and a refreshing mint dressing make this salad perfect for entertaining.

Why I Love Tomato and Artichoke Salad with Mint Dressing

Fast and Furious. Ha, no we are not talking about cars. I love how this is a super quick plant-based salad that I can prepare in less than 20 minutes and is packed with furious flavour.

It’s a great salad recipe to have up your sleeve especially when tomatoes are in season as it only requires a few simple ingredients that you most likely have in your kitchen or simply purchased at your local supermarket.

The combination of tomatoes, marinated artichoke hearts and fresh micro sorrel leaves can be on the tart side but the fresh basil and mint dressing changes this and creates an appetising herby concoction.

The basil and mint dressing can also be kept for other leafy salads or even drizzled over roast lamb.

How to Use Marinated Artichokes?

As a lover of antipasto, my pantry and fridge is often stocked with marinated goodies. Whether it be olives, anchovies, baby cornichons, octopus or a jar of marinated artichoke hearts.

You never know when friends pop over for a casual catch up or when a glass of red wine is needed. Having these antipasto staples in the kitchen makes life so much easier.

Other than a delicious antipasto platter, have you considered other marinated artichokes recipes?

Made from tender globe artichoke hearts (and be aware they are not related to the Jerusalem artichoke at all!), marinated artichokes are preserved in extra olive oil, lemon and often flavoured with garlic, herbs and red chilli flakes.

Marinated artichokes is great way to devour them continuously through the year as globe artichokes are only available for a short season during the cooler months.

And of course, you can find recipes to marinate your own but, for me, jarred marinated artichoke hearts or the ones at the deli are perfectly fine. Sometimes it is best to leave it to the experts!

My kids and I can eat marinated artichokes from the jar but they are great as a pizza or bruschetta topping. Adds a distinctive tangy balance to typically salty ingredients on a pizza.

You can also brown in a pan before tossing through a light linguini pasta with extra virgin olive oil, capers, rocket and parmesan cheese.

I have also thinly slice them and, together with mushrooms, add them in my omelette for lunch (Yes I am one of those people who just throws whatever is left over in the fridge into my eggs.)

Marinated artichoke hearts are a versatile ingredient that I think no pantry should do without. Having them on hand means you can also whip up a salad on a whim as I did with this Artichoke and Potato Salad with Creme Fraiche.

What is Red Sorrel?

Walking through my local green grocer, I noticed pots of micro herbs for sale and I was immediately attracted to a pot of bright green leaves with distinctive dark red veins.

Red sorrel is a leafy herb with a distinct lemony flavour and slightly acidic bite. I had never tried it before and couldn’t resist the beautiful colours so had to buy a pot of micro red sorrel and give it a go.

I learnt through searching what red sorrel pairs well with that it is a detoxifying herb. Mature leaves are often used to prepare juice or steeped in hot water as a tea to help with cleansing and reduce inflammation.

However due to the oxalic acid in the leaves, over consumption can cause irritation in the tummy so best to use sparingly.

Young red sorrel leaves are great in salads but more mature leaves can be cooked like spinach which is perfect in soups, sauces or tarts. The lemony and slightly piquant flavour is a great counterpoint for seafood, chicken, eggs or even creamy based sauces.

For this recipe, I loved the lime green colours of the micro red sorrel leaves accentuated against the bright red tomatoes but also adding a slight lemony freshness to the overall flavour.

If you are unable to find red sorrel, fresh basil leaves are a fantastic substitute for a more classic tomato and artichoke salad combination.

How to Make Tomato and Artichoke Salad with Mint Dressing

How to Prepare the Tomatoes

I love tomatoes. I’m quite happy to pop cherry tomatoes as a snack. I also get very excited when I see the huge variety of tomatoes we can get when they are in season.

With more than 3000 tomato varieties cultivating across the globe, there are plenty of options to choose from.

Depending on the variety, tomatoes can be sweet, tart or tangy. Larger varieties like beefsteak can be less sweet compared to smaller varieties. Whilst my daughter loves the compact, juicy and sweeter cherry and grape tomatoes.

For this no cook salad, I chose a couple of larger beefsteak tomatoes, smaller sweet golden grape and red cherry plus medium sized truss tomatoes.

They were chosen for the varying sizes, colours and flavours. It definitely creates more interest in the salad than to have one tomato variety. And there is no need to choose the same, just use what you like and can find.

Always start with a sharp knife when cutting tomatoes. Without a sharp knife when slicing tomatoes, I find I end up squishing them down.

For the larger tomatoes like beefsteak, we want to cut them crossways. Place the tomato sideways and slice the tomato into ½ cm thick slices.

For the smaller tomatoes, cut them in half from top to bottom. If you have very small cherry tomatoes, you can leave some of the whole too.

How to Prepare the Rest of the Salad

Cut marinated artichoke hearts into quarters.

Peel and cut red onion in half. Thinly slice red onion in half moons.

How to Make Basil Mint Dressing

Super easy but super fresh and adds so much flavour. Great zippy mint dressing that would work well not only for leafy green salads but with boiled potatoes, roast lamb or steamed greens.

Basically just blitz everything in one hit. Can’t get more simple than that.

I used my food processor for this as it was the quickest way to combine the ingredients. You can finely chop everything if no food processor available.

Place basil and mint into a food processor and blitz until well blended.

Add lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil and blend until combined. Take the lid off food processor, add lemon zest and stir together.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

How to Assemble the Salad

On a large serving plate, place larger tomato slices first around the plate. Then layer the smaller tomatoes around the slices. Mix them around so you can have a variety in colour and flavour.

Layer cut artichoke hearts on top of tomatoes.

Pick red sorrel leaves and scatter over salad. If you can’t find red sorrel, replace them with basil leaves.

Scatter sliced red onions and capers.

Drizzle fresh mint dressing over salad. Serve immediately.

Can easily be prepared in under 20 minutes and can effortlessly be transported. Keep dressing separately until you are ready to serve.

Easy. Fresh. Delicious. I love how simple ingredients can come together with minimal effort and create a super tasty plant based salad. Our Tomato and Artichoke Salad with Mint Dressing is definitely worth adding to your menu this week.

That’s all!

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