Summer Tomato Cocktail Sauce

Check out the beautiful salad I had for lunch a few days ago. I would have posted this right after lunch, like the food bloggers whose frequent posting tends to fill up my Google reader, but I was waiting to get the recipe for the fresh tomato cocktail sauce that I used as my dressing and garnish.

The picture doesn't reveal the true size of my vat of salad, but here's a hint—the Rubbermaid container than I made it in is sold as a produce keeper to store your heads of lettuce. I mixed spring greens with some spinach, tossed it with a little olive oil and some apple cider vinegar (which, I will admit, makes for a tart salad when the cocktail sauce is added), threw in a potpourri of chopped vegetables (sweet onion, celery, bell pepper, cucumber), and added some of the cocktail sauce.

Then I added the star of the show (well, the co-star, along with the cocktail sauce), six boiled super-jumbo shrimp. Each one weighed at least an ounce and was about two inches long! I cut up five of them into smaller pieces so they would go further (otherwise I'd probably eat them in about two bites, though I think they are billed as "three-bite shrimp" in the store), but left the last one whole for the picture.

Finally I drizzled it all with more of the homemade fresh cocktail sauce. Here is the recipe. It is perfect for summer, especially as all those cherry tomatoes you planted start to ripen!

Summer Tomato Cocktail Sauce

Place:
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
2 tbsp. prepared horseradish
½ cup catsup
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
in a blender or a small food processor and pulse until well incorporated, scraping down inside of container if needed. Chill before serving, and serve with cooked and chilled shrimp. Makes 2 cups.

Per 1/4 cup serving: 23 calories, 264 mg sodium