Tomato, Nectarine + Dill Salad
It is tomato and stone fruit season, and in true gutsy style, we are bringing you a super easy, 30 second recipe to take the stress out of healthy eating. If you stumble across the very best produce, you really have to do very little work to make a great dish. Also, this is a great opportunity for us to discuss something I get asked a lot, "to peel, or not to peel"? Read my thoughts below.
~ Gutsy Flora
Tomato, Nectarine, Dill + Onion
INGREDIENTS
12 plum tomatoes, or any small tomatoes you can find
2 nectarines
finely chopped raw red onion
a few sprigs of dill, torn
v small pinch sea salt
METHOD
Chop tomatoes, prepare nectarines into bite size pieces, finely chop the onion, tear the dill and toss everything together.
Nectarines will go brown quite quickly, so if you want to keep this fresh for a moment longer, squeeze over a splash of lemon to prevent the nectarines going brown, or if your feeling fancy, some white balsamic works well.
Dirty Dozen, Clean 15, It's organic, don't panic
To peel, or not to peel?
In general, I recommend that people don’t worry TOO much about the ins and outs of fresh fruit and veg prep – which ones to peel, how to cook them, how many to have, etc.... let's avoid getting orthorexic here! As a general rule, just get munching on more fruit and veg varieties and you're gut bugs will be very happy with the fibre.
For me, to take it one step further; where possible, I buy organic (and affordable), but if I cant then I prepare produce differently. The ingredients in this recipe are a classic example of two produce in season, both on the list of the "Dirty Dozen" (product with high pesticide residue). I found some organic tomatoes which can simply be used without a wash, and Nectarines, non organic so I boiled some water, soaked them to remove their skin easily and threw them into the mix too. Just taking a moment longer on your food preparation can make all the difference to the effect that food will have on your gut flora.
If you're not sure about what's what, check out the Environmental Working Group Dirty + Clean produce, 2018 highlights.
