Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

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I first made these sweet and sour tomatoes in April of 2011, right after finishing a huge chunk of my manuscript for my cookbook. In search of a light and easy side dish, I tried out this great recipe for a sweet and tangy tomato salad. A years later, it's still a warm-weather standby. 

I've been perusing my cookbooks for ideas for easy side dishes to get me in the mood for warmer weather. Ideally, I could also snack on them when recipe-testing stir-fries, which I have been doing a lot of lately. Yesterday, while looking through Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, I hit jackpot on one of the last few pages. It was a recipe for sweet and sour tomatoes, an incredibly easy salad-like side dish that also seemed chock-full of flavor. The ingredients? Tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, coconut aminos (my vegan take) or fish sauce (for the more traditional version). That's it. As far as I can tell, fish sauce is a fine ingredient that doesn't get used enough in salads outside Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.

I made a few big changes to the book's recipe, such as significantly reducing the amount of liquid, which seemed overwhelming for the number of tomatoes. I also substituted shallots for onions because of the slightly sweeter natural flavor, and used cider vinegar instead of malt vinegar for a fruitier flavor to the sauce. There was no mint in the original recipe, but it just seemed to fit. And wow, these tomatoes turned out so well, with such a great mellow balance of sweet and sour flavors, that wedge by wedge, they slowly disappeared before my chicken stir-fry was done.

I can't even wait to try it with the candy-like heirloom tomatoes that show up everywhere late summer. It'll be like an appetizer and dessert in one, and a perfect snack if I happen to be holed up in the apartment again, cooking and typing away.

Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

Yield: 3 or 4 as an appetizer or side dish, or 1 tomato enthusiast as an afternoon snack
Author: Adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong
Prep time: 10 MinTotal time: 10 Min
These tomatoes are like an appetizer and dessert in one,

Ingredients

  • 1 shallot, very thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
  • 3 medium tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon coconut aminos (or fish sauce for the more traditional version)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped mint

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, toss the sliced shallots with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and a pinch of the salt. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes.
  2. Slice the tomatoes into wedges, removing the hard cores.
  3. In another small bowl, mix together the cider vinegar and fish sauce with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar and the remaining salt. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with the cider vinegar mixture and wilted shallots. Sprinkle the chopped mint on top and serve.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

69.49

Fat (grams)

0.27

Sat. Fat (grams)

0.04

Carbs (grams)

16.36

Fiber (grams)

1.93

Net carbs

14.43

Sugar (grams)

11.85

Protein (grams)

1.44

Sodium (milligrams)

215.96

Cholesterol (grams)

0.00
tomato, salad, mint. shallots, vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan
recipes
Chinese
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Adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong.