In this post, I am going to show you how to make a 5 ingredient summer cherry tomato salad recipe that you can make in 10 minutes. It’s unbelievably easy to make and I will go over other ingredients that you could add to it. This salad is vegan friendly, gluten free, low in calories, and keto friendly!
A wonderful summery low stress recipe, and it serves as an amazing appetiser and/or side! This tomato salad is served with cucumbers and onions, but the onions are going to be marinated. And they’ll give such a nice flavour to the salad!
Healthy, tasty, light, simple, amazing! Let’s get into it!
How to prepare the onions
So we’re going to take the harshness out of the onion and mellow out that strength that it has. And we’re going to marinate it so that it adds a beautiful flavour and element to our simple salad.
So first, to help get rid of the strength, we put our sliced onions in a bowl filled with ice cold water. And then leave it for about 5 minutes.
You can leave them in for longer, but since we’re going to marinate the onions in vinegar as well. Which will also help take away some of the strength, 5 minutes is enough.
After 5 minutes, strain the onions and then put them in a bowl with some red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Making sure that all of the red onion is coated. Then let the onion marinate in that vinegar for 3-4 minutes before draining onto kitchen paper.
Then you can add the onions to your salad.
How to make the dressing
The dressing is as simple as whisking all of the ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
However, you can also add the ingredients to a jam jar, tightly close the lid and then shake it until you have a vinaigrette.
And you don’t have to use red wine vinegar, you could use balsamic vinegar instead since it’s also fantastic for this kind of salad. Mainly because tomatoes and balsamic vinegar are a classic combination.
And if you want to take things further, you could skip making a vinaigrette and make a balsamic glaze instead! All you have to do is reduce balsamic vinegar by half.
I demonstrate how to make this balsamic glaze in these 2 recipe posts which are also fantastic tomato based recipes:
- Mini Caprese Skewers with Balsamic Glaze
- Roasted Cherry Tomato & Garlic Bread Bruschetta with Balsamic Glaze
I’ve also made a strawberry vinaigrette recipe that would be fantastic for this salad or any other summer salad!
What else could I add?
This is a very simple salad with few ingredients. And I think that’s a wonderful thing because I believe that this is what many people often look for in summer salad recipes.
However, if you wanted to add some other ingredients and expand on this simple base recipe, here are some other wonderful additions:
Herbs:
- Mint – Mint gives a lovely fresh element to salads like this.
- Basil – This herb with tomatoes has always been a classic combination.
Cheese:
- Mozzarella – Another ingredient that is a classic with tomatoes. However, make sure you use the bocconcini version of this cheese.
- Feta – Gives a lovely salty element to the salad.
- Goats Cheese – Also gives that salty element along with a nice creaminess which some people may prefer.
Fruits:
- Avocado – This fruit would complement the flavours of this salad beautifully! As it often does with many other salads.
Meats:
- Fish – A nice flaky white fish like snapper or cod would be great for mixing through summer salads like this.
- Steak – To make this a lovely summer bbq style steak salad.
- Chorizo – If you fry the chorizo and get it nice and crispy, then add it to the salad along with some of the leftover fat. The tomatoes will soak up all of the flavours from the chorizo.
What could I serve this salad with?
If you plan to serve this salad to accompany another dish, then it’s fantastic as an appetiser or side for bbq’s and/or comfort food dinners.
Tomato salads are also incredible with a good loaf of bread because the bread will just soak up all of the flavours from the salad!
How long will this salad keep?
A salad like this will last around 3-5 days. So if you keep it for more than 1-2 days make sure you keep an eye on it.
And also make sure that the salad isn’t dressed when you store it. Store the dressing separately and only dress the salad whenever you’re about to serve it.
How many calories are in this salad?
This salad contains about 1512 calories altogether, which is 378 calories per person if you’re serving 4 people. Although to be honest you’re not very likely to even have that many calories in 1 serving because that amount includes the dressing. And you only need a couple of spoonfuls of the dressing at most!
So it’s a very light salad, which may be perfect for you but as I said, you could expand on this salad or use it to accompany another dish. It’s completely up to you!
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5 Ingredient Cherry Tomato Summer Salad
Ingredients
Cherry Tomato Salad:
- 500 g of cherry tomatoes halved
- 200 g of cucumber de-seeded and sliced
- 200 g of red onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
- 5-6 blocks of ice
- 1 pinch of salt
Red Wine Vinaigrette:
- ¾ cup of extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup of red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
Instructions
Cherry Tomato Salad:
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Get a large bowl, and then add your ice. Fill the bowl up with water and then add your sliced onions. Leave the onions in the bowl for about 5 minutes before straining.
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Meanwhile, mix your cherry tomatoes and cucumber together in a large bowl.
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Once you've drained the onions, put your red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt in a bowl, then add your onions, making sure they are coated in that vinegar.
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Let the onion marinate in the red wine vinegar for a few minutes before draining on kitchen paper and then adding to the salad.
Red Wine Vinaigrette:
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Put your extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl and then whisk until well combined.
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Store in something that allows you to easily spoon or pour the dressing over the salad (give the dressing a stir each time before you spoon/pour it over the salad).
Recipe Notes
- To prepare the onions, soak them in a bowl of ice cold water for 5 minutes. Then add them to a bowl with both red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Let the onions marinate in the red wine vinegar for a few minutes before adding them to the salad.
- Taking the harsh strength out of onion is a great idea if you're going to eat it raw.
- You can make the vinaigrette by whisking the ingredients together, or you can shake the 2 ingredients in a tightly sealed jam jar.
- You could replace the red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar to make the vinaigrette. Or you could make a balsamic glaze by reducing balsamic vinegar by half. Which is demonstrated in this Mini Caprese Skewers with Balsamic Glaze recipe, and this Roasted Cherry Tomato & Garlic Bread Bruschetta with Balsamic Glaze recipe.
- Mint, basil, mozzarella, feta, goats cheese, avocado, fish, steak and chorizo are other great ingredients you could add to this salad.
- This recipe is wonderful as a side or as an appetiser. And it's fantastic when served with a nice loaf of torn bread.
- This salad should keep in the fridge for about 3-5 days.
- This whole recipe has approximately 1512 calories, which is 378 calories per person.
Great recipe for this time of year. I personally like using the jam jar technique for making the salad dressing. I do that all the time.
Thank you so much! And yes I am a lover of the jam jar technique too! (:
I love a fresh tomato salad – so quick and tasty! 🙂
Thank you Teresa!