This was my first summer planting a vegetable garden and my lack of experience shows in the fact that all six of our tomato plants will be ready to harvest at the same. damn. time. That means that we will soon have an abundance of tomatoes in our house and while I love a BLT as much as the next girl, I’m in need of some summer tomato recipes to make sure our haul doesn’t go to waste.
When I planted our veggie experiment back in May, I had dreams of fresh summer salads all season long. Spoiler alert: that didn’t quite happen. I planted the aforementioned tomatoes along with three zucchini plants (RIP), three bell pepper plants (RIP), basil, and cilantro (RIP).
The zucchini plants yielded us two beautiful zucchinis before a critter got to the plants themselves. The basil is thriving and the cilantro did ok before going to seed. The peppers have looked exactly the same since the day they were planted, which I didn’t even know was possible.
We were a little worried about the tomato plants because while they were certainly growing, there weren’t any actual tomatoes to be found. But then, a few weeks ago, we suddenly had our first tiny tomato appear! Since then, more and more tomatoes have sprouted up, and at this point, we have about 20 that will be ready to pick within a few days of each other.
I LOVE a fresh tomato and will probably eat at least one of them plain (or with French dressing like my grandpa used to eat them), but I still need to figure out what to do with the majority of them. I’m no chef (Robin’s bread recipe for beginners really spoke to me), but I’ll be making two of my favorite summer tomato recipes for sure: cucumber tomato salad and baked tomatoes. Both recipes are below, and you can download a baked tomato recipe card for yourself at the end of the post!
Cucumber and Tomato Salad
This barely even counts as a recipe because it’s so easy.
Ingredients:
- Cucumbers
- Tomatoes
- Italian dressing
- Mozzarella cheese (cheese sticks will work in a pinch, not that I know from experience…)
Directions:
Just cut everything into uniform pieces, mix in the dressing, and call it a day.
Baked Tomatoes
This recipe from my great-grandma is a family favorite. From what I’ve heard she didn’t cook with actual recipes, which explains why there are no specific measurements in this one. Just eyeball it!
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes
- Salt and pepper
- Less than ¼ cup sugar (approx. 3 Tbsp.)
- Soft bread cubes
- Butter
Directions:
- Peel tomatoes and cut into ½-inch thick slices.
- Place a layer of tomatoes, salt, pepper, sugar, and bread cubes in a baking dish. Dot with butter.
- Add another layer of tomatoes and bread cubes. Top with more butter.
- Bake at 400 for about 45 minutes. Tomatoes should cook down and brown around edges. Smash down occasionally during baking.
Do you have any favorite summer tomato recipes? Please share them with me, I need as many ideas as I can get!
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