My Tomato Knife

My mother-in-law sent me a wonderful present for my birthday It is a Yoshi Ceramic knife. I thought this was a very thoughtful, sweet gift, since she knows how important cooking for our health is to me. Thanks, Mutti C.!

When I called to thank her, she told me to be very careful because the blade is sharp. She also said it shouldn't be used on hard foods like bones (no problem there!) and it is important to treat it like any other ceramic thing, i.e. don't put too much pressure on it. The knife was packaged along with a ceramic veggie peeler, which my mother-in-law said was a waste of time. I thought I would be the judge of that, but she is right. It doesn't peel anything fibrous. I think it might be good at making ribbons of something soft, like zucchini, but it is too delicate for a carrot.

Back to the knife -- it doesn't work on onions. It works like a charm on tomatoes, so henceforth it shall be dubbed "my tomato knife" The china blade gracefully slides through the skin and flesh of a very ripe tomato,without smashing it in the slightest. The tip of the blade dispatches the stem with equal aplomb.

I made salsa with this tomato. I tried to chop a few of the other veggies with "my tomato knife" but I was worried I would shatter it, as I was using a bit of pressure, so I had to pull out other knives. This is not the knife with which to smash a clove of garlic!

Here's my delicious salsa. Since I am still working on solving my B12 deficiency mystery, I am walking around without much oomph, so I find myself putting protein in everything in order to compensate. So I had to put chick peas in my salsa. Hey -- don't knock it 'til you try it! It was a big hit with the omnivores too. Here's an approximation of this version of my summer salsa:

Cheryl's Summer Salsa
Ingredients:
One large ripe tomato, diced (I used heirloom)
A big handful of grape tomatoes, halved
one jalapeno, minced
1/4 c. minced purple onion
one can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
a large handful of cilantro, chopped
juice of two limes
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Just throw it all into a bowl and stir it up, season with salt and pepper and stir again.


This was delish -- we noshed it with brown rice chips all weekend, then I ate it on a baked potato and also on a salad of mixed greens and avocado:

I love my tomato knife for chopping tomatoes, and I look forward to using it on other kind, gentle veggies like mushrooms or summer squash. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.