I have had a windowsill full of roma tomatoes staring at me for several days now.  Ever since I saw Ashley’s tomato and corn soup, I knew I wanted to roast them.  I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with them afterwards.  So I waited.

And waited.  And then just in time for lunch, inspiration struck.  There is no grain I love more than millet.  Something about it’s slightly corn-like taste and chewy texture gets me every time.  My husband is a huge quinoa fan, and while I make lots of recipes with quinoa, it’s actually probably my least favorite grain. 

I know.  The food blogger gods are probably bashing lightning bolts together or something.

Quinoa is fine, it just doesn’t get me excited.  Millet is a whole other story.  And paired with delicious roasted summer tomatoes, it makes the perfect lunch. 

Roasted Tomato Millet Salad

Print this recipe!

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 6-8 roma tomatoes
• 1 cup dry millet
• 2.75 cups water
• 1 cup basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup kalamata olives
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1.5 teaspoons cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt + more to taste

Instructions:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Slice tomatoes in half lengthwise and lay seed-side-up on a sheet pan.

Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.  Place pan in oven and roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until very soft.

In the meantime, prepare the millet.  Combine 1 cup dry millet with 2.75 cups water, and cook either in sauce pan or in a rice cooker until light and fluffy. 

After an hour or so, pull the tomatoes out of the oven.

They should be soft and juicy, with browning and caramelization on the skin.  Mmmmmmm.

Add tomatoes to a large mixing bowl along with basil and olives.  I chose to leave the tomatoes in large halves in the salad because I think the flavor is best when the juice is held in.  But if you prefer smaller bites, you can also dice the tomatoes before adding to the bowl. 

Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, and salt, and pour dressing over mixture.  Stir to distribute the dressing evenly!

Finish seasoning to taste with salt, grab a fork, and dive in!

This grain salad is great served right away at room temp, or reheated the next day as leftovers.  It’s just one more way to enjoy my favorite grain, and use up any end of summer tomatoes that might still be resting on your windowsill.

As always, enjoy!

Today has just been one of those days where I sort of felt like this…

Not sure if it was the nice sunny weather or the impending weekend, but I just didn’t feel like being strapped to my laptop all day long.  I still managed to get a lot of work done though, and checked a lot of things off my weekend to-do list!

To avoid my computer, I tackled one of the other big projects I had on my agenda for this weekend – mailing our new Recipage t-shirts!

We have really great new super soft American Apparel shirts we are sending to all of our users, and now that they have arrived I was excited to get them into the mail so that people can start enjoying them!

Lots and lots of addressing, stuffing, sealing, and double-checking.  It is really fun to have a side business that I can work on with Casey, and it’s something that we both put time into every day.  (For background on how/when we started Recipage, see the Recipage story!)

With all my envelopes stuffed and ready for the post office, I also did a bit of cooking…

And subsequently, some eating.  This delicious creation will be up Monday morning – YUM. 

I finished my thank you cards for gifts from my baby shower…

And now I am finally back on the computer and sipping an iced decaf coffee at one of Seattle’s finest coffee shops.  I foresee a nice long walk in the sunshine this evening, followed by a lot of this…

Have a great weekend, friends!