Tomato Salad with Pumpkin Seed Oil
Ripe tomatoes and pumpkin seed oil are the main ingredients for this salad, popular in the northeastern corner of Slovenia.
In Šempeter, where I grew up, my brother is taking care of our family garden, so we have fresh tomatoes every summer and we regularly enjoy tomato salad for dinner. Two years ago, I tried to recreate it in the US, but with the store-bought tomatoes I had at hand, it just wasn’t the same. So if you can get your hands on ripe tomatoes, this is a great recipe, but if not, skip it.
For the dressing, I usually use Štajersko prekmursko pumpkin seed oil (for the list of producers, click here). It is a Slovenian product with a protected designation of origin indication. The Štajerska and Prekmurje regions have a long tradition of growing pumpkins for oil and processing pumpkin seeds into pumpkin oil, dating back all the way to the 18th century.
In my family we usually have this salad for dinner with warm bread, but it is also great with dödöli.
Recipe
Ingredients:
2-3 ripe tomatoes
1 spring onion
150 g white cheese (I use the Slovenian ‘beli sir', which is similar to feta)
pumpkin seed oil
pumpkin seeds
coarse salt
Instructions:
Core the tomatoes and slice them into half-moons. Slice the white cheese. Chop the spring onion.
Place everything in a large bowl. Add the pumpkin seed oil, coarse salt to taste. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and serve with warm bread.
My brother’s tomato plants.
