‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Marinated Tomatoes Recipe Is a Perfect Healthy Side Dish

Ree Drummond makes easy marinated tomatoes and a tomato salad recipe that are perfect side dishes for a range of entrees. The Pioneer Woman star’s simple dishes are an ideal way to use up fresh garden herbs and tomatoes.

Ree Drummond makes her sister-in-law’s marinated tomatoes recipe

Drummond wrote about her marinated tomatoes recipe in a 2011 blog post on The Pioneer Woman website.

“My sister-in-law Missy brings these marinated tomatoes to our Fourth of July bash every year, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re essential to my emotional well-being,” Drummond wrote. “Amidst all the grilled steaks, warm corn casserole, and potatoes, the cool, fresh flavor of the tomatoes always, always hits the spot.”

The Food Network host continued, “What also hits the spot is that Missy, for reasons unknown to me, insists on transferring her tomatoes to a food storage container and leaving them with me at the end of the night. Maybe she knows how much I love them. Maybe she doesn’t want to clutter her fridge.”

She added, “I will tell you that as good as these tomatoes are at the Fourth of July get-together, they’re even better the next day. And the day after that? … This is what I did: Made bruschetta.”

How to make Ree Drummond’s marinated tomatoes

Drummond made Missy’s marinated tomatoes on an episode of The Pioneer Woman. She made the dressing by combining olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, sliced green onions, parsley, basil, ground thyme, and finely minced garlic in a bowl. She poured the dressing over “a wonderful medley of all sorts of tomatoes — different colors and shapes, some sliced, some in chunks.”

The Pioneer Woman star stirred everything together, covered the bowl, and allowed the mixture to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

“That salad is particularly awesome because, first of all, you can make it ahead of time,” she shared. “But second of all, it just gets better and better as it sits in the fridge.”

Drummond assembled the dish by placing butter lettuce leaves on a platter, spooning the marinated tomatoes over it, and topping it with basil.

You can find the recipe on the Food Network website.

‘The Pioneer Woman’ star makes a marinated tomato salad with herbs, too

Drummond made her marinated tomato salad with herbs on the very first episode of The Pioneer Woman as part of the “ultimate ranch dinner.”

She explained, “Since we’re in that great time of year right now and I’m growing herbs on the ranch, I’m gonna make a marinated tomato salad that’s really colorful and gorgeous.”

Drummond chopped tomatoes and placed them in a bowl, then added sliced green onions. She made a simple vinaigrette by combining balsamic vinegar, olive oil, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. “I don’t like to whisk my vinaigrettes,” she noted. “I like to put them in mason jars and shake them.”

She poured enough vinaigrette over the tomatoes to coat them and tossed everything together. Drummond added chopped fresh parsley and basil leaves. “This looks so good and the flavors are going to be out of this world,” she said.

The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.