This week's meal prep included herbed lamb burgers with sautéed mushrooms and onions, carved roasted chicken, baked spaghetti squash, gravlax (cured salmon), bison stuffed bell peppers, baharat spiced pumpkin bisque and salt cured tomatoes. In listening to the Girls Gone WOD podcast this week, they were interviewing Will White, the owner of Caveman Cafeteria, a paleo food truck & meal prep service in Denver. There was talk of salt cured tomatoes and how incredible they are so I was prompted to do a little research and see what all the fuss was about. I had picked up some gorgeous tomatoes at the farmers market yesterday and figured this seemed like a pretty good application and rendered my own recipe. They're definitely salty (as are most things you cure with salt) but when dressed properly, they were pretty fantastic little bursts of bright, tomato-y freshness. When you salt cure anything, you're stripping out the water, which in turn concentrates the flavor - pretty fabulous.
Salt Cured Tomatoes
4-6 fresh, ripe roma* tomatoes
1/2 cup coarsely ground kosher salt
4-5 fresh bass leaves, chiffonade (cut into thin ribbons)
3 cups fresh arugula
1 tablespoon high quality olive oil
2 teaspoons aged balsamic vinegar
4-5 grinds of freshly cracked black pepper
- On a rimmed baking sheet, spread 1/4 cup of kosher salt evenly across the bottom
- Slice you tomatoes using a serrated knife into 1/2 inch slices
- Lay your slices out on your baking sheet and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of salt across the tops
- Allow the tomatoes to cure for 30-45 minutes at room temperature
- Remove the slices from the pool of liquid at the bottom of the pan
- Gently rinse your tomato slices
- Serve atop arugula, lightly dressed with vinegar, oil, basil and pepper
- You can also store you tomatoes in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days
*I used romas, however use whichever type is the freshest and readily available locally
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