Tomato Bocconcini Salad

🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe:

• This tomato and bocconcini salad is perfect for lunch, dinner, or an appetizer. 
• It is light, fresh, healthy, and quick to make.
• It is gluten-free and can be vegetarian if using bocconcini or mozzarella made with non-animal rennet.

🥘 Ingredients In This Recipe

The printable recipe further down the page has the complete list of ingredients, including quantities and step-by-step instructions.

Bocconcini cheese - we love cherry bocconcini because they are small, but you could also use fresh mozzarella and cut it into smaller pieces.

Tomatoes - we used a mix of yellow and red cherry and grape tomatoes just for looks, but you can stick with one variety and color.

Basil - use fresh basil leaves because it just lifts the flavors of this salad.

Salad dressing - we used a mix of extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dried herbs, sugar, mustard, and garlic.

Optional

Caramelized balsamic vinegar - You can use store-bought balsamic glaze or make your own caramelized balsamic vinegar dressing.

🍳 Step By Step Instructions

Wash and slice the tomatoes in half, and place them into a serving bowl.

Wash and shake dry the basil leaves. Pull the leaves from the stems. If the leaves are too big, tear them in half and add them to the tomatoes.

Cut or break the bocconcini into smaller pieces and add these to the bowl.

Put all the salad dressing ingredients into a jar with a screw-top lid, shake well, pour it over the salad, and toss to mix and serve.

💭 Recipe Tips

Advanced prep

This tomato bocconcini salad is best made just before serving. However, you can prepare each component two hours in advance and keep them separate until ready. 

Here is how we would do it:

1. Slice the tomatoes, place them into a serving bowl, lay the basil leaves on top of the tomatoes, and store them covered in the fridge until needed.
2. Cut the bocconcini cheese into small pieces and keep them in another bowl in the fridge until needed.
3. Then make the salad dressing about 30 minutes before serving.
4. When ready to serve, add the bocconcini to the tomatoes and basil leaves, pour over the dressing, toss and serve.

Caramelized balsamic vinegar

If you choose to use the caramelized balsamic vinegar, drizzle it over the salad at the last minute, and don't mix it in, because it will turn the bocconcini a brownish color.

👪 Serving Size

This recipe makes about 750 grams (26.45 ounces) of salad and serves 4. A serving size is about 187 grams (6.59 ounces).

🍬 Calories Per Serve

A serving has about 227 calories.

🥗 Serving Suggestions

This salad is a great side dish for barbecued or grilled meats, roasts like chicken and beef, pizzas, pasta, and casseroles.

Substitutions

Bocconcini cheese

If you can't get bocconcini cheese for this recipe, you can substitute it with mozzarella. Mozzarella cheese is larger than bocconcini, so cut or tear it into smaller pieces before adding it to the salad.

Cherry tomatoes

If you can't get cherry tomatoes, use an equivalent weight of large ripe tomatoes and cut them into smaller pieces.

Fresh garlic

If you can't get fresh garlic or it does not agree with you, leave it out, or use ¼ teaspoon (or to taste) garlic powder.

📖 Variations

Use mint - if you like the taste of fresh mint leaves, add a small handful or two to the salad along with the fresh basil leaves.

🌡️ Storage

Refrigeration - If you have any leftovers, these can be stored in the fridge and eaten the next day. However, you may find that the salad has turned a little watery due to the water content of the tomatoes.

Freezing - Not suitable to freeze.

📝 Frequently Asked Questions

More Easy Recipes

Here are some other bocconcini/mozzarella recipes you might like to try

• Cherry tomato and bocconcini skewers
• Caprese crostini
• Marinated mozzarella balls
• Bruschetta with mozzarella