This is a great salad for a hot day, when the thought of turning on any cooking appliance just makes you want to flop into a pool and stay there until the winter freeze.  All you need is some patience and a knife.

The goods:

vine-ripe or heirloom tomatoes, chopped.  I leave them in fairly good-sized chunks.  As long as they’re bite-sized, they’re good enough.

cucumber, chopped (to about the same size as the tomatoes).  I prefer seedless English cucumbers, but go with whatever.

green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

celery, chopped

red onion, diced (since onions are so strong, I would cut them up quite a bit finer than everything else.)

kalamata olives, cut in half

capers, drained

red wine vinegar

extra virgin olive oil

salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme

croutons (used bagged croutons if you like – I’m awfully lazy these days, so I certainly did.)

 

The method:

Mix however much you want of each of the veggies into a big bowl.  Drizzle with vinegar and oil, toss to coat.  season to taste. Just before serving, mix in the croutons.

Variations: punch up the flavor with a little caper brine.  Add protein by mixing in chopped chicken or chunked tuna.  Make it really pop with some minced fresh basil.

Enjoy!