Heirloom Tomato Salad with Grilled Maui Onion and Zucchini

This recipe comes from Grace-Marie's Kitchen, an independently owned cooking school at the Manhattan Beach, Bristol Farms. Grace-Marie is the owner and chef of the cooking school. She holds fun themed demonstration classes and some hands-on cooking classes as well. I've gone to a handful of the demonstration classes where she cooks a 3-4 course meal for the class. It's great fun to do with girlfriends. In fact, this recipe was from the Maui Garden Luncheon theme, I took my best friend for a belated birthday lunch. :)

This was Grace-Marie's salad course and if you don't know from reading my salad blogs, salad's are my thing! I love salads! This salad was so delicious, but I must warn you, it does have one ingredient that is kind of obscure or exotic, especially if you don't have an Asian market close by to purchase it. The ginger preserves or pickled ginger shreds definitely add the perfect depth of flavor to the dressing, but I did not have this ingredient on hand when I made this for the 4th of July. Instead, I used regular ginger plus 2 teaspoons of sugar and it worked just as well. So don't be intimidated by the strange ingredient called out in the dressing. Wait, I just had a random side thought... a few days too late obviously...I should have made the ginger shreds myself with my quick pickle recipe. Next time I'll give it a go. Or if you try this Salad recipe, you can follow the link above and try pickling your own ginger. :)
Also, If you don't have heirloom tomatoes, just substitute with your favorite tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes are usually pretty pricey and I would've used Beefsteak tomatoes for this to save the dollars. But, I found 2 pounds of heirloom tomatoes for only $2. Only a dollar a pound, what a total steal and they were delicious. Enjoy! 

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Grilled Maui Onion and Zucchini 
(recipe slightly adapted from Grace-Marie's Kitchen)
Serves 8

Cilantro-Ginger Vinaigrette

• 1 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup Ginger Preserves or sweet pickled ginger shreds (substitute with 1/4 cup ginger, peeled and sliced plus 2 teaspoon sugar)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, loosely packed
• 2 T shallots, roughly chopped
• 2 T Asian chili garlic sauce
• 1 T soy sauce

Using a blender, combine and puree the oil, vinegar, preserves, cilantro, shallots, chili sauce and soy sauce. Pour through a strainer, discard solids and chill until ready to use. If necessary, whisk again just before using. (Note: This marinade gets better overnight, so you may want to make this a day ahead of time, but is not necessary.)

Salad

• 4 small zucchini, trimmed and halved lengthwise
• 1 large Maui Onion (or any sweet onion), cut into 1" thick round slices
• 1-2 pounds Heirloom Tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• Goat or feta cheese, crumbled 

Prepare and preheat an outdoor or stove-top grill. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
Brush the zucchini and onions (I only used about half of a Maui Onion, since it was so large) with some of the vinaigrette and allow to marinate for 30 minutes or longer. 
Grill zucchini until just charred and not cooked completely so it doesn't get mushy (that's a technical term.:)). Allow the onions to grill completely until they are translucent or even browned a bit to enhance their sweetness. The original recipe called for under-cooking the onions, but I prefer them a little more cooked, but you can grill them to your taste. 
Transfer to the baking sheet and allow to cool to room temperature. Chop zucchini and onions. Combine the grilled vegetables with the tomatoes and the cilantro. Drizzle with additional vinaigrette over the mixture and very gently toss. Serve with crumbled goat cheese or feta cheese.