Vegetable Filled Fresh Tomato Salad with Herb Vinagrette

Saying goodbye to the last of the tomatoes from the garden isn't easy.  Throughout most of the summer we've become spoiled, eating them fresh and warm plucked right off the vine, in sandwiches, salads, grilled, roasted, simply sliced, and have put up some to enjoy during winter. 

When their season has ended and there are just a handful of summers' bounty remaining we like to savor them fresh since it will be nearly a year until we have them sweet and juicy from the garden again.

This is one way I like to serve them at seasons' end. Simply hollowed out and filled with other vegetables which have been tossed with a flavorful vinaigrette, or any dressing you like.

Delicious on their own, or plated up with dressed tender lettuce leaves...

This time I served them as a side dish with shredded Chicken Tacos, and added a little hot sauce to the vinaigrette.  For the filling I tossed some corn, black beans, red and green peppers (mild or hot) and some diced onion-- but you can use almost any vegetable you like. 

If fresh corn isn't available, use frozen~ just thaw and rinse. I used canned black beans this time.  Small dice of sauteed zucchini, other squash or finely diced carrots, celery, radishes, rinsed frozen peas all work well.

My "House Vinaigrette" is one I've been using forever ~ it is the one I learned from Julia Child, years ago.

You can find the recipe for Julia's vinaigrette and the ingredient suggestions for the Vegetable Filled Tomatoes on my recipe blog:

 (Click HERE)

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