If you want to cook a particularly tasty and unusual dish for any special occasion, then a salad with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella is best for this. Its unique taste and bright appearance will make such a meal a real decoration of the festive table, will please all households and guests of the house.
Main components
First of all, let's figure out what are the main components of numerous salad recipes for the New Year, birthday and other holidays. That is, find out how dried (dried) tomatoes and mozzarella cheese look and taste.
- Sun-dried tomatoes are ripe vegetables that have lost most of their juice during drying in the sun or in the oven or dryer. They have a rich sweet and sour taste, thanks to which any salad, which includes vegetables, becomes spicy and refined.
- Mozzarella cheese is a classic Italian cheese with a pleasant creamy and slightly salty taste. It is a small white balls in brine that look great in a salad, giving it an original look.
However, the charm of these ingredients is not only in their taste and original form, but also in the fact that they contain a huge amount of vitamins, minerals and trace elements that will only bring benefits to the body. And the low calorie content of cheese and tomatoes will make the salad they enter in completely safe for the female figure.
Italian salad
The most popular dish with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella is Italian salad. To create it, you will need:
- 250 grams of cheese;
- 200 grams of dried tomatoes;
- 100 grams of arugula;
- a handful of pine nuts;
- a pair of loaves of loaf;
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- a pair of lettuce leaves;
- chili pepper;
- on a tablespoon of balsamic and wine vinegar;
- a pinch of salt.
First, cut the loaf into small pieces, put them on a baking sheet with nuts and put in the oven for 10 minutes. During this time, we cut the dried tomatoes and cheese into 2 halves, chop the garlic into slices, chop the pepper, and also tear the lettuce leaves and the arugula with our hands. Then add a tablespoon of oil, garlic, wine vinegar to the tomatoes and leave them to marinate for 5 minutes. Next, lay the lettuce leaves on a large plate, sprinkle them with balsamic vinegar. We put the arugula on top, pour a tablespoon of oil on it, and on top we put a mixture of tomatoes, mozzarella, crackers and nuts. It takes half an hour to prepare everything, and the final result exceeds all expectations.
Brazilian salad
The main difficulty of the previous dish is a huge amount of ingredients, so if you do not have all its components, you can prepare another salad with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella. To create it, we need:
- 100 grams of cheese in brine;
- 10 pieces of dried cherry tomatoes;
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar;
- 100 grams of arugula.
To prepare such a salad, you only need to cut the mozzarella into slices and tomatoes in strips. And after that, it remains to combine tomatoes, cheese and arugula in a salad bowl, season the dish with vinegar, mix it and serve.
Russian version of the salad from homemade drying
Not all salad recipes for the New Year and other holidays that come to us from other countries can be easily implemented. For example, far from every store you can find dried tomatoes, which, however, cannot be the reason for refusing to prepare Italian or Brazilian salad, as well as any dish that has this ingredient. Therefore, now we will try to figure out how to make a salad from improvised components. For this we need:
- a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar;
- 2 red tomatoes;
- 150 grams of cherry tomatoes;
- 100 grams of mozzarella;
- a handful of arugula leaves;
- 120 ml of olive oil;
- handful of basil leaves
- a pinch of salt and black pepper.
The first step in preparing a salad with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella is to dry our vegetables. To do this, preheat the oven to 150 ° C, put on the baking sheet cut in half cherry tomatoes and sliced into ordinary slices, pour 100 ml of oil on them, sprinkle with your favorite spices and send to the oven for half an hour. Then, from the remaining oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and basil leaves, we make dressing, and cut the mozzarella into circles. After that we combine the tomatoes, cheese and arugula in a bowl, season the salad, mix - and the dish is completely ready.
Cheese salad
If you are still thinking about how to cook a salad with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella to surprise guests, you will need a recipe for this dish, which also includes hard cheese, which will make the appetizer even more appetizing. And we will need components to create a salad, such as:
- a pair of lettuce leaves;
- a handful of arugula;
- 150 grams of dried tomatoes;
- 10 pieces of cherry tomatoes;
- small fresh cucumber;
- 100 grams of mozzarella;
- a handful of pine nuts;
- 100 grams of Parmesan cheese;
- a pinch of salt and black pepper.
First of all, we cut dried tomatoes into medium-sized pieces, cucumbers in half circles, mozzarella in circles and cut the cherry in half. Then put lettuce on the bottom of the bowl, prepared vegetables, cheese and arugula on them. Then we mix it all, pour it with oil, in which were bought dried tomatoes, salt and pepper salad. Mix again, and before serving, sprinkle with grated cheese and pine nuts.
Puff salad
From dried tomatoes and cheese, you can also cook one very unusual dish that will never go unnoticed. To make it, we need:
- lettuce;
- 120 grams of cheese;
- 100 grams of dried tomatoes;
- red onion head;
- 12 pieces of pitted olives;
- a pair of garlic cloves;
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil;
- a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar;
- a teaspoon of a mixture of Mediterranean herbs;
- salt and pepper as you wish.
First, you will need to prepare a salad dressing with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella. To do this, beat the butter with herbs, salt, pepper and garlic, passed through a garlic squeezer. While the sauce will be infused, cut into cubes olives and cheese, cut the onion into rings, and the tomato into strips. Next, put the washed lettuce leaves in the salad bowl, on them - tomatoes, then olives, then onions and cheese, and pour the sauce on top. Let the salad brew a little and serve it on the table.
Salad with Carrots and Corn
Since yellow grains are an excellent salad decoration with dried tomatoes and mozzarella, canned corn can also be added to our dish, which, moreover, will shade its unusual taste. In general, such a meal will require components such as:
- 100 g of dried tomatoes;
- 100 g of lettuce;
- 100 g of cheese;
- 100 g canned corn;
- red onion;
- medium-sized carrot;
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil;
- salt and pepper to your liking.
First you need to wash and dry the lettuce leaves, as well as peel and wash the vegetables. Then three carrots, cut the mozzarella balls in half, chop the onion in half rings and divide the tomatoes into slices. After that, put lettuce leaves on the bottom of the plate, on top - all the other prepared components. Fill the salad with oil, salt, pepper, mix, and before serving, decorate with corn grains.
Festive Salad
Finally, deciding to make a dish for some special occasion, one cannot ignore the special salad with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella. The proportions of the ingredients in this dish will be as follows:
- large avocado fruit;
- 120 grams of lettuce;
- a handful of arugula;
- lemon;
- 120 grams of cheese;
- 100 grams of dried cherry tomatoes;
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil;
- salt and pepper to your liking.
First, cut each tomato in half, finely chop the flesh of the avocado, wash and tear the lettuce and arugula, and throw the small balls of cheese into a colander, letting the brine drain. Then we put all the ingredients in a salad bowl, season with olive oil, salt, pepper, mix well and after 5 minutes serve the finished dish to the table.
Tips for making salads with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella
In order for our holiday dish to turn out exactly the way we want to see it, have a rich taste and delight the eye, when creating it, you should remember a few simple rules.
- Before adding tomatoes to the salad, they should be blotted with a napkin to remove oil and thereby make the dish less caloric.
- You should never wash dried tomatoes, as this will adversely affect their taste, and hence the taste of the salad.
- When choosing mozzarella, you should pay attention to the color of the cheese, which should be only white and not yellow. This shade indicates that the product is stale.
- Cheese can be stored in airtight packaging for about a month, and after opening the package - 2 days, so this must be taken into account when cooking. Salad must be eaten on the same day as it is made.
- Before you add cheese to the salad, you need to throw it in a colander in order to get rid of excess fluid.