This recipe is a healthier take on the classic panzanella, which means “bread salad” in Italian! It brings whole wheat bread, kale, squash, green beans, tomatoes and goat cheese together into a colorful, hearty salad. The goat cheese makes it!
I used whole wheat Cville Crunch bread from Great Harvest for optimal nutrition and fiber, but you can use either a healthy whole grain bread or a lighter Italian loaf if you prefer.
Rather than using plain lettuce, I used a medley of vegetables to create a rainbow of color, so this is a great salad to serve in your favorite big platter or bowl. This salad is fairly hearty, but you could always add your favorite protein on top to make it more of a complete meal.
VIDEOS
Start by cutting the squash into half inch rounds, then place flat and cut into quarters.
Since I’ve been a bit down on all raw salads, I cooked the green beans and squash to soften them up.
Add the kale to wilt it a bit too!
Toast your pine nuts in a separate dry pan until they are fragrant and begin to brown. Don’t look away or they will burn!
Meanwhile, toast the bread in a toaster oven and cut into squares. And make the simple dressing in a jar on the side.
Assemble the veggies in a big bowl or platter, toss with dressing, and top with toasted bread cubes, goat cheese, pine nuts and basil.
One thing to note: if you intend to have leftovers, you might want to keep the bread separate and add as you enjoy the salad. It will lose its crunch if it sits in the dressing too long. The rest of the salad should be fine a day later though!
Mama Mia!
Healthy Panzanella
Yield 4-6 servings
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 cups of bread cubes (about 4-6 slices, depending on your bread size)
- 1 green squash
- 1 yellow squash
- 2 cups green beans
- 1 heriloom tomato
- 2 cups kale, torn off the stems
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- ½ cup goat cheese, crumbled
- 1 tbsp basil, chopped
Dressing
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup white balsamic
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Dice yellow and green squash.
- Remove ends and discard ends of green beans, then cut in half.
- Tear kale into bite sized pieces.
- Add veggies to a skillet with 1 tbsp olive oil and saute until tender.
- Cut bread into cubes and toast until crispy.
- Toast pine nuts in a dry pan until fragrant and brown.
- Combine cooked veggies with tomatoes in a serving bowl.
- Combine dressing ingredients in a jar and mix well.
- Toss veggies with dressing.
- Add bread cubes, goat cheese, pine nuts and fresh basil on top.
This looks sooooo good!! Perfect to use my CSA veggies in!
My favourite salad is the Panzanella! Love the crunchy bread – saving this recipe!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Ive never had this dish before, but I love all the ingredients in it, so I bet Id like it. The pine nuts in there sound great!
If you quarter then chop your squash prep will be much faster than cutting in circles then quartering. 🙂
I don’t make this type of salad enough! It would be perfect for a cleaning-out-the-fridge meal for the end of a work week. 🙂 With Matt’s Celiac, it’s not quite as nice as this type of bread, but I will look for something nice to include. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks DELISH!! I just love these types of salads! I love that you still support your Great Harvest! Are you friends with the current owners? Did you ever share your reasonings for selling the business? Was it just too hard to own together once you were separated or did you sell it for another reason? Sorry if that’s personal, but I love small business owners’ stories. Does Matt still work at his sandwich shop? Anyways, wish we had a Great Harvest closer… their products look so good!!
Give me all the goat cheese! This is a great way to use up the rest of summer produce!
Did you use all the dressing for the salad? Seems like a lot for one salad? Over a cup of dressing. If not, about how much did you use? Sounds delicious!
It does make some extra, but the bread also soaks some up. I would just use what you like and save the rest!
I love bread salad but I can’t have bread AND salad haha.
Thanks you so much for creating this yummy and creative recipe. We love it!?
can you give the nutrition breakdown