Early Girl Tomato Toast

Tomatoes Are “Meh”

You know, I never used to be fond of tomatoes. I mean, sure, there was always a good spaghetti sauce growing up that everyone loves, but eating tomatoes raw just wasn’t my thing. I didn’t really care for them much in burgers and I definitely didn’t appreciate them in salads. Then I became a Vegan.  And it’s so crazy how your taste buds change when you shift to a plant-based diet, in where now I truly appreciate a tomato for what it is. They are pure umami bombs! Well, at least that’s how I think of them now.

This once weird fruit that seemed too mushy for comfort to me back then, now has me always searching for the best tomatoes I can find.  I roam around the farmer’s markets testing everyone’s cherry tomatoes before making my purchase.  It’s not because I’m being picky, but because I’ve realized what a great tomato should taste like and why should we settle for less?

Fresh Produce

We don’t always have the option to go to fetch fresh tomatoes at the farmer’s markets, so in comes Trader Joe’s with their selection of Organic Early Girl Tomatoes from Jacobs Farm! 

These tomatoes were actually super tasting just by themselves, but for a morning toast, I tend to look for something a touch more savory.  To bring out the savoriness in tomatoes, all we have to do is add some salt and throw them in the oven for roasting! The sugars release, and all the juices start bursting out of the fruit…it’s a quite romantic process if I must say.

I decided to roast these tomatoes with some garlic and rosemary which always go great with tomatoes and toast!

Seasoning Is Key

To prepare the rosemary, I give a generous sprinkle of salt and finely chop it up with the rosemary so that it pulls out all of those natural oils from the herb. I’ll also add in the garlic shortly after and give it one nice mince together.

Then, simply add some extra virgin olive oil and toss it together to prepare them for the oven.

olive oil over tomatoes

tomato seasoning

I like to use foil and just create somewhat of a box shape out of it to trap all the juices of the tomatoes once they roast.

Popping them in the oven at 365 degrees for about 20 minutes should be enough time to yield a great tasting roast tomato.  When they are done roasting, you can stick a small knife in them to test the tenderness or just look for a lot of liquid coming out of them.

Great Rustic Bread

Equally important for a savory breakfast toast is of course the bread. I love TJ’s organic pain pascal bread which is 100% whole wheat.

To prepare the bread, simply brush some olive oil on them, and get a nice heat going on your grill pan. The smokiness of the grill pan searing that olive oil on the bread is what makes any breakfast toast amazing!

Having patience for grilled bread is super important. Because while we don’t want to completely burn it, we don’t want it under grilled either. Once the bread’s done, after about 3-4 minutes, we’ll lay down 2 tomatoes on each slice of bread and mash it with a spoon.

It should mash super easily and spread like a jam. Now that’s my jam!

You should smell all of those amazing rosemary and garlic aromas from the tomatoes now. For the final touches, we’ll grab a few fresh leaves of basil and give a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast. If you’ve followed me for the past couple of months, you know I just can’t get enough of my nutritional yeast!

If you really want to finish everything off with something special, then take a little bit of that roasted tomato juice and olive oil and drizzle it over the toast. You’ll have yourself the best breakfast feast that’s so simple and mad flavorful!