sweet miscellany

Dried cubes of bread are tossed with chopped summer veggies, herbs, lemon juice, and olive oil for a quick and easy salad. This vegan and gluten free summer panzanella is a great way to use up stale bread!

As the temperatures rise my overall time spent cooking in the kitchen decreases. I gravitate towards dishes that require little prep but pack plenty of bold flavor. Good thing a lot of summer produce is just as delicious raw! This panzanella is essentially a salad with big croutons (or chunks of stale bread). It’s packed with flavorful summer produce like cucumbers, tomatoes, and sweet bell peppers. And, you don’t have to turn on the oven to make it!

What is Panzanella?

Panzanella originated in the Italian regions of Tuscany and Umbria. Traditionally, it was made with stale bread that had been soaked in water, then squeezed of excess moisture. The “re-hydrated” bread was then tossed with vinegar and chopped vegetables like onion and tomato. It’s common to often see cucumbers and herbs in the mix. In my version, the stale bread isn’t soaked first so it can soak up the olive oil, lemon juice, and juice from the tomatoes. The bread is paired with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, mint, and chives.

Summer Panzanella

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Author: Courtney West
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Diet: Vegan

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Description

Ingredients

Units Scale

3 cups cubed stale bread**
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup chopped sweet peppers
1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used chives and mint)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

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Instructions

To assemble the salad, toss the bread with the veggies, herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. The longer the salad sits the more liquid the bread will absorb so keep that in mind when preparing and serving.

Makes 4-6 side servings.

Notes

**if your bread isn’t stale, no worries! You can cut or rip it into bite-sized pieces and leave it out on a baking tray overnight. Or, if you want to use your oven, you can dry the bread out at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
I used purple bell peppers as my “sweet peppers” for the panzanella you see pictured here. They made for a beautifully colored salad!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Category: salad