Dressed up tomato toast

We were watching some sort of Bon Appetit video online the other day, and Carla made some delicious-looking middle eastern-inspired tomato flatbreads. She described them as "dressed up" tomatoes on toast, and it looked really delicious. So with those big gorgeous tomatoes that we got in the CSA, plus all the herbs we had on hand, we figured that would be pretty tasty. We weren't wrong, this was amazing. The key is that every component was amazing on its own, so combining them just amplified things. We'll be making this again. 

There are four components to this piece of deliciousness: Flatbread, tzatziki, smashed chickpeas, and seasoned tomatoes. Each element is delicious alone, but together you've got a real symphony in your mouth. 

The one on the left has both the tzatziki and the chickpea smash, the right still only has the tzatziki

Flat bread

The flatbread we sort of winged it. Could have made a traditional yeasty bread with yogurt for tanginess, but instead went with our trusty sourdough for the tanginess (is that a word? spellcheck doesn't seem to agree with me that it's a word). 

About a cup of starter, a cup of warm water, and two cups of flour. 1.5ish teaspoons of salt. Plus a sprinkle of instant yeast to help it poof. Not sure if that was necessary. Knead it well, and then let it rise while preparing the fillings. For extra tanginess, you can mix up the starter and a cup of flour the night before, and let the starter eat all that yummy flour so that when you knead in the next cup, it's got even more tang. We went with that approach, because we'd started making bread the night before and then got lazy and went to bed instead.

Anyway, after you've assembled the fillings, divide your dough into six balls, and roll them out or stretch them out. Heat some oil in a pan, and start frying up your dough. Somehow, this makes things so much stretchier than just baking it. Once the bottom is nicely browned, brush the top with oil, and flip. I think it was about 5 minutes for the first side, and maybe 2 minutes for the second side. They'll stay flexy after cooking, don't worry. 

Tzatziki

This has got to be one of my favorite ways to eat cucumbers. Herby and creamy and cool, it complements all sorts of things. It's also a delicious way to eat yogurt. You can't go wrong. 

1 cucumber, peeled (could use two, if you're got an over-abundance)

1 small red onion (or shallot)

1C (maybe? it was whatever was left in the yogurt container) greek yogurt. Regular would work too

juice of half a lemon

pinch of salt

1 tsp chopped mint

1/2C chopped parsley

1/4C chopped cilantro*

1/4C chopped basil*

*You could totally get away with just using mint and parsley, or in a pinch, just mint. But more herbs make it taste even better!

chop the red onion and cucumber finely. Chop the herbs. Mix everything together. You could make this the night before. The longer it sits, the more the flavors meld. 

The red onions that we got from this week's CSA are amazing - not at all that overwhelming raw-onion flavor you get from the big ones, rather just sweet and crunchy and juicy and just the right amount of spice. I'm so in love with those onions! I've never loved raw onions before, this is totally a game changer. Anyway, the crunch of an onion is different than the crunch of a cucumber, so it's nice to have both in the sauce. 

Chickpea smash

Again, you could make this the night before, because the longer all the things sit together, the more the flavors meld. This is another easy one - 

1 can chickpeas, drained

juice of half a lemon

2 good pinches of salt

~1/2C roughly-chopped parsley

~1/4C chopped cilantro

Put the chickpeas in a bowl, and mash them a bit with a fork. You're not making hummus, leave some big chunks. Add everything else, stir it around, and you're good to go.

Seasoned tomatoes

This is the sort of dish to make when tomatoes are perfectly ripe. The sort of dish to make when you've got those big heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market, the sorts of tomatoes that when you sniff them you swoon. Because the tomatoes are the star of this show.

Slice them into rounds, maybe 1/4" thick. When you place them on the flatbreads, sprinkle with salt and za'atar and sumac. You could skip the sumac, since there is already sumac in za'atar. But don't skip the seasoning, as it brings out so many more flavors. 

Assemble

On a piece of flatbread, spread some tzatziki, then some chickpea smash, then lay down some tomatoes and season. Cut into wedges, and eat with your fingers. 

We also served this with some roasted carrots, since we have a LOT of carrots right now. 

This is my newest favorite summer dish. Enjoy!