Best Tomato Toast Recipe for Summer Tomatoes
If you’re looking for delicious ways to enjoy those summer tomatoes, this tomato toast recipe is IT. Basic tomato toast is elevated with a few simple ingredients that highlight the tomatoes. One bite and you’ll be hooked. It’s no surprise that I love tomato toast, given my love for toast in general. It makes such a great simple, nutritious, and delicious meal – anytime of the day.
And if you’re as obsessed with toast as I am, be sure to try my avocado toast, ricotta toast, hummus toast, and peanut butter toast next time.
Once the garden tomato plants start producing, everyone is looking for recipes with summer tomatoes (myself included)! This tomato toast is truly delicious any time of day. Pair it with a protein like creamy scrambled eggs for a breakfast or serve it with some other summer veggies (try my summer tomato salad!) and a simple lemon kale salad and/or grilled drumsticks for a perfect summer dinner. If you can’t wait for perfect tomatoes, make roasted tomato toast with roasted grape tomatoes!

The tale of the best tomato toast ever goes a little something like this:
- Read about best tomato toast in Bon Appรฉtit and make a version as soon as possible.
- After the first bite, immediately curse yourself for not reading this issue sooner.
- Make again and again and again until the tomatoes are done for the season.
- Share with YOU!
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

What You’ll Love About Tomato Toast
- Nutritious and delicious meal
- It’s a great way to enjoy summer tomatoes
- Made with simple ingredients
- Just 10 minutes total time
- Elevated, but easy
- So much flavor in each bite

Ingredients
The beauty of this tomato garlic toast is that simple ingredients come together in the most-delicious way. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Mayonnaise – Use your favorite mayonnaise like Hellmans or Kewpie mayonnaise.
- Garlic – Fresh garlic is a must for this toast with tomato, please no jarred garlic here. ๐
- Lemon – We’re using the zest, so you’ll need an actual lemon, not just the juice.
- Chives – Use fresh chives for best summer flavor. You could also use thinly sliced green onions if you don’t have chives.
- Bread – Use an artisan, crusty bread like sourdough bread, multigrain bread, or loaf of baguette. Because this meal is so simple, you do want to use the best bread you can.
- Tomatoes – Look for perfectly ripe and flavorful tomatoes like beefsteak tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, or slicing tomatoes. The size doesn’t matter so much as you just need to cover the toast – with one slice or many slices!
- Finishing touches – Flaky sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and a drizzle of good finishing olive oil take this to the next level.


How to Make Tomato Toast
This is an overview on how to make tomato on toast, the detailed instructions can be found below in the recipe card.

PRO TIP: If you want restaurant-quality toast, don’t be shy with the oil and toast in a hot skillet, not the toaster!



Tips for the Best Tomato Toast
- Use perfectly ripe tomatoes. They are the star of this recipe so you want them to be high quality, perfectly ripe, and super juicy and flavorful.
- Cut tomatoes with a serrated knife so you don’t bruise or smash them. They are fragile so be gentle with them.
- Cut tomatoes RIGHT before serving so they don’t lose all of their juices.
- Use a high-quality bread. This recipe is so delicious because it uses high-quality ingredients – bread included! Sourdough is delicious, but you can really use any artisan bread loaf, just procure the best you can.

Storage Instructions
The garlic mayo can be made up to a day in advance, but everything else should be done right before serving.

What to Serve with the Best Tomato Toast
This makes a light summer meal, but if you want to make it a bit more hearty, here are a few ideas:
- Serve with bacon and eggs as part of an easy breakfast-for-dinner meal.
- As a side to grilled chicken thighs or grilled chicken drumsticks
- Greek Potato Salad with Green Beans
- Arugula Watermelon Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
- Napa Cabbage Slaw

How to Feed Tomatoes on Toast to the Whole Family
I get it, feeding kids can be tough! But following the Division of Responsibility and knowing your job and your childโs job makes it SO much more enjoyable. Youโll be able to feed your kids any meal, which will help ensure that they are eating a variety of nutritious foods โ with plenty of play food sprinkled in.
I would recommend serving the components separate and let everyone make their own tomatoes on toast. Babies and toddlers could have small strips of toast with cut up tomatoes. Serve the meal with a few items you know your kids will eat, like fruit and milk, along with the bread.
This is a messy toast, which can be frustrating for kids, so you could also make more of a pan con tomate, which is made by rubbing tomato on the bread so it is infused with flavor, but doesn’t have slices. It’s delicious and would be easier for small kids to eat!

More Tomato Recipes for Tomato Season
If you like this tomato toast breakfast, be sure to try some of these other easy tomato recipes:
- Greek Cucumber Salad
- Summer Tomato Salad
- Tomato Mozzarella Panini – Use sliced fresh tomato instead of grape tomatoes here
- Bruschetta Chicken Pasta Salad
- Avocado BLT with Dill Mayo

Summer Tomato Toast Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Toast
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
The BEST tomato toast recipe! Ready in just 10 min, the basic tomato toast gets a few simple upgrades. One bite and you’ll be hooked!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 lemon
- small bunch of chives
- 8 slices artisan bread like sourdough
- 2 large heirloom or slicing tomatoes
- flaky sea salt
- black pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Prepare ingredients:
Place mayonnaise in a small bowl.
Use a microplane zester to grate garlic into mayo bowl.
Zest and juice lemon (you’ll need half) and add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to mayo bowl. Set aside zest.
Wash and thinly slice the chives.
Slice bread. - Slice tomatoes and lightly toast bread. You want the slightest hint of crunch.
- Layer mayo mixture on bread, and top sliced tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, ย flaky salt,ย freshly cracked black pepper, a sprinkle of lemon zest, and a sprinkle of chives.ย
Notes
- Get your kids involved! They can: mix mayo mixture together, top their own tomato toast.
- Wait to slice tomatoes until right before eating so that you retain as much of the juice as you can!
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Was this inspired by Bon Appetitโs THE Tomato Toast of Summer of 2018? It looks almost the same!
Oh I missed the part where you mentioned Bon Appetit!
I was just going back to check! ๐ I thought I mentioned it. YES, definitely yes. Have you had it?
Loved this one!! Super easy and delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Jordan
Look forward to making this all year!