6 Tasty Recipes Using Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom tomato season is in full swing and we can’t get enough of them. Heirloom tomatoes are not your typical supermarket tomato, they’re sweet, juicy and have an intense one of a kind flavor. I honestly don’t like tomatoes, but I love heirloom tomatoes. Because heirloom season is short (only 3 months) I tend to get a bit obsessed with them and eat them daily if I can.

I thought I would share with you all 6 tasty & easy recipes (all vegan except the last one) that incorporate heirloom tomatoes. I’ve even tossed in 2 new recipes ideas into this post and 2 fun videos. So go out and grab a couple of heirloom tomatoes today and make one of the below recipes this week. Your taste buds will be thanking me.

Heirloom tomato soup.

First off, I wanted to share our absolute favorite soup EVER! I make this soup weekly, if not bi-weekly during heirloom season, because it’s that good! Everyone who tries this soup becomes obsessed, from little kids to grandparents. This soup is vegan and made with such simple and fresh seasonal ingredients. It’s creamy without the cream, and it honestly doesn’t taste like your typical tomato soup, as its sweeter and not acidic. My kids and friends go crazy for this soup and we can’t wait for heirloom tomato season each year, so we can make batches upon batches of this soup. Make this soup and trust me, it won’t last a week.

I even have a video explaining a few tips when it comes to choosing tomatoes for this soup.

My kids pairing this soup with a grilled cheese with roasted broccoli sandwich for an easy meatless Monday meal, or a batch of popovers! 

I love adding some quinoa and hemp seeds to this soup to give it some substance and protein, as a lunch time stand alone meal. Why not give yourself some self-love and make a heart out of the hemp seeds. I also love it paired with  a dairy-free, gluten-free pop-under. 

Heirloom tomato gazpacho.

If you’re more a fan of a cold soup in the summer, then you have to try this gazpacho. Gazpacho is seriously the perfect summer soup for many reasons. First off, it’s a cold soup, so it’s the perfect soup to sip on a hot summer day or night. Secondly, it doesn’t require you to heat up a stove or oven, which is bonus when it’s 90 plus degrees out. I call it the lazy mans soup because when your tired and famished all you have to do is pull out a batch from the fridge, pour it in a bowl and eat away.

It’s also a great weekday soup because it takes under 30 minutes to make, just chop up the fresh ingredients and toss them in a blender! Make a batch in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast, or before you rush off to work, and when you come home all tired from a long day, you dinner will be ready! How nice does that sound?

Grilled bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes.

This bruschetta is SO EASY to make, and honestly makes any meal feel fancy. Just take some crusty french bread, rub it with bit of garlic, grill it up and then top it with some sliced heirlooms, olive oil, a splash of balsamic and sliced basil, and you have the perfect summer side to any meal. We pair this with just about anything in the summer, even my heirloom soup. 

Quinoa with tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and mint.

This is the perfect healthy summer salad! It’s chock-full of fresh herbs, cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes, which are at their ripest in the summer months. This salad is BURSTING with FLAVOR! I might even say that it’s a bit better the next day when all of the flavors had a chance to meld together! It’s the perfect salad for a summer lunch, side dish for dinner, as well as the quintessential salad to bring to your next potluck or picnic. It’s easy to whip up, and can be made a day ahead! Awesome!

Heirloom tomato and avocado toast.

This is pretty much my go-to lunch everyday in the summer!  It’s SO easy and SO tasty!  You can make it 2 simple ways.  All you need are 4 simple ingredients!

Heirloom tomato and avocado toast.

• Sliced bread of choice, I love Young Kobras GF buckwheat sourdough, but also regular sourdough works great.
• Avocado
• Heirloom tomato, sliced thin
• Coarse Celtic sea salt, or pink Himalayan sea sat

Bruschetta style:

1. Slice up some of your favorite bread.
2. Brush both sides of the bread with some olive oil.
3. Put the bread under the broiler until both sides are browned to your liking.
4. Cut an avocado in half, take a fork and smash it onto the bread.
5. Top the avocado with a sliced heirloom tomato.
6. Top the tomato with some coarse sea salt.

Easy lunch-time toast:

1. 1. Take 2 slices of bread.
   2. Put the bread in the toaster.
   3. Cut an avocado in half, take a fork and smash it onto the bread.
   4. Top the avocado with a sliced heirloom tomato.
   5. Top the tomato with some coarse sea salt.

Bacon, avocado heirloom tomato toast.

This is not really a recipe, but a great way to jazz up the old BLT.  We call this a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) instead of a BLT. Mattie and I love having this for dinner when Steve is working late. We even made a funny video below. Check it out if you have time.

This is an easy peasy kid-approved weeknight dinner, or lunch and and pairs perfectly with my heirloom tomato soup.  Just toast up some of your favorite sliced bread, take a fork and smash half of an avocado onto one slice, top it with a sliced heirloom tomato, add a few slices of bacon and a bit of mayo to the other slice, (gotta have the mayo) sprinkle some pink Himalayan sea salt on top of the mayo, add some lettuce, or better yet, some basil, (my fave) and voila, you have yourself one amazing sandwich! Yum!

I hope this inspires you to go out and pick up some heirlooms today! If you make one of the above recipes, please let me know which one you made and how it turned out for you!