![Tomatoes Vinaigrette](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/03/multimedia/ct-tomatoes-vinaigretterex-qbvk/ct-tomatoes-vinaigretterex-qbvk-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Tomato Salad on Cumin-Spiced Yogurt
![Tomato Salad on Cumin-Spiced Yogurt](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/09/30/magazine/30mag-eat-image1/30mag-eat-image1-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
- ½teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1cup full-fat Greek yogurt, plus 2 tablespoons
- ¼teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1clove garlic
- 1handful scallion greens
- 1handful dill
- ¼cup mellow white wine vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½cup neutral oil, such as grapeseed
- 1½ to 2pounds ripe tomatoes, a variety of sizes and shapes, cut into wedges or halved if small
- Maldon salt, to finish
Preparation
- Step 1
In a small, dry saucepan over medium heat, toast the cumin seeds until they are toasted and aromatic (do not let them burn!), about 2 minutes. Use a mortar and pestle or spice grinder to grind into a powder. In a small bowl, mix toasted cumin with 2 tablespoons yogurt, turmeric and ½ teaspoon salt, until no streaks remain. Set aside.
- Step 2
To make the dressing, put the garlic, herbs, yogurt, vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt and pepper in a food processor, and purée until smooth. With the machine running, pour the oil into the bowl in a slow steady stream. The dressing will become a thin, light green vinaigrette.
- Step 3
To assemble the salad, spread the remaining 1 cup yogurt on the bottom of a large serving dish. Toss the cut tomatoes with the vinaigrette, and pile them on top of the yogurt. Pour any remaining dressing all over the tomatoes and yogurt. Finish with a sprinkle of Maldon or other crunchy salt, and serve, spooning up the yogurt, tomatoes and dressing all together.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I understood that the Yogurt amount is one cup and 2 spoonfuls. First you prepare the spices and add them to the yogurt. Then, step 3 - you work with your prepared yogurt and when ready , step 4 - you assemble the salad. Most of the yogurt is on the bottom, some of it - you pour on the top. Hope this helps:)
In step 1, make sure to let the cumin seeds cool before grinding them. They will be soft and chalky straight out of the skillet - cooling hardens them back up.
Haha! No, we're absolutely NOT all cooks - I'm a beginner and am paying extra for the subscription in an effort to learn! The comments are invaluable for figuring out how it all works.
Agree with all who expected more clarification in recipe. But, c'mon, we're all cooks aren't we. Just made the dressing, winging it, with 1 tbsp yoghurt (my preference), rice wine vinegar, olive oil (no grapeseed in my pantry) and added a bit of the cumin and turmeric meant for the yoghurt base layer, which I skipped entirely. Poured over my end of summer heirlooms. Worked wonderfully for me.
There are cooks at all skill levels here so I am kind of wondering how newbies like me are supposed to know which white wine vinegars are “mellow”?
I loved the green sauce. I had to use olive oil, but next time I'm going to make sure I have a more neutral oil on hand like the recipe calls for. We ate the sauce, yogurt, and tomatoes over grilled rosemary sourdough bread. Delicious! I think the gem here is the green sauce over tomatoes. I'm going to skip the yogurt next time, it just got in the way.
Delicious! Made this almost as written, except that I didn't have dill and did have basil so made that switch. My husband pronounced it company-worthy, but in the absence of company we scarfed it down ourselves with gusto.
hi all! thank you so much for flagging the unclear yogurt measurement. we've edited the recipe for clarity and deleted many of the reader comments regarding the yogurt so as not to clog the thread.
Step 2 should read: "To make the dressing, put the garlic, herbs, 2 tablespoons of the yogurt . . ." Also, in the ingredient list, after yogurt, it should say "divided," like it does after the salt. Poorly written recipe. I've been a professional cook for decades and I had to read this more than once to figure out what was intended, so home cooks, don't feel bad.
Just made this following the recipe exactly, except that I only had a one cup container of yogurt, so I took out two tablespoons from that container for the vinaigrette, and used the remainder to line the serving dish. I don't have a mortal and pestle or a spice grinder, so after I toasted the cumin seeds, I crushed them with a metal spoon in the pot they cooked in. I went heavy on the scallions and dill, as exact measurements weren't given. I used Jersey tomatoes. This was delicious.
This is so good. The recipe could be a little easier to follow for novice cooks. The 2 tablespoons of spiced yogurt are added to the dressing with the vinegar, oil, garlic, and fresh herb. It makes a delicious creamy dressing. I followed the recipe, only adding a little extra vinegar to the dressing. Absolutely delicious.
This recipe is still confusing even tho the authors claim they clarified about the yogurt. Are the cumin and turmeric spices supposed to be in just the 2 tablespoons of yogurt that goes in the dressing, or in all of the yogurt, including the yogurt spread on the plate that is underneath the tomatoes? From reading the recipe, it seems the spices just go into the 2 tablespoons of yogurt for the dressing. However, that does not align with the name of this recipe!
I used Labneh instead of Greek yogurt and it was amazing. Probably not that noticeable in the dressing but a really great accompaniment to the tomatoes and dressing
Used fat-free Greek yogurt, skipped the dill and used just a bit of olive oil. Was delicious and many fewer calories. It really would be great to have the recipe edited since there are conflicting measurements and directions in multiple places. It tastes great any which way, BUT, it would be great to know the way the creator made it!
Roasted potatoes Cauliflower
I read the notes and the confusion about the two tablespoons of yogurt and decided to put the curry and turmeric all in one batch of the seasoned yogurt. I loved the curried yogurt and put it all on the bottom of the platter. It was so yummy that I thought the the dressing was extraneous. I agree that it would make a great lunch all by itself with a nice loaf of bread. I was heavy handed with the curry, but I think this recipe is forgiving especially if your tomatoes are wonderful.
Used half the vinegar and added a drop of agave nectar because it’s June and the tomatoes are imports.
Added cumin and turmeric to entire 1 c 2 T yogurt.
Absolutely delicious but very confusing recipe. There is 1 cup and 2 tbsp of yogurt called for which are used up in steps 1 & 2, but step 3 asks for remaining cup of yogurt? Also unclear what we are to do with the sauce from step 1... I spread the vinaigrette on the bottom of the plate, tossed the tomatoes in the sauce from step 1 and laid them in top. Also subbed basil for dill because that’s what I had. We licked the bowl clean.
Made the two sauces to go on top of roasted cauliflower and chickpeas from Nothing Fancy. Ate with gooseberry pickle and cilantro. Yum.
Can't say I made this but I took inspiration and used the red onion and fresh cilantro I had in the house in the salad piled on top of super-rich yogurt with lots of toasted and crushed cumin seeds. Drizzled olive oil and white wine vinegar over all. It made a great September morning breakfast. Next time I'll actually make the vinaigrette.
As written, the recipe now has you spicing two tbsp of yogurt and adding that to the dressing, and leaving one cup plain to spread on the plate. Given the headnote's description of "layered on cumin-spiced yogurt," this seems incorrect. I am going to spice the 1 cup, and leave the 2 tbsp plain, since it is going into an already flavorful dressing.
Is this right? - step 1 uses 1 cup of yogurt, not 2 TBS - step 2 uses 2 TBS yogurt - step 3 uses the 1 cup of spiced yogurt from step 1 to cover the plate I would like to make this tonight. Thanks, Dina
Recipe as written was a bit confusing - I ended up with a lot of thin green yogurt dressing and a couple tablespoons of thick yellow yogurt. I’ll whisk the yellow into half the green and see what happens.
I loved the green sauce. I had to use olive oil, but next time I'm going to make sure I have a more neutral oil on hand like the recipe calls for. We ate the sauce, yogurt, and tomatoes over grilled rosemary sourdough bread. Delicious! I think the gem here is the green sauce over tomatoes. I'm going to skip the yogurt next time, it just got in the way.
Advertisement