Panzanella Salad Recipe
This Panzanella Salad Recipe is perfect for enjoying as the weather warms up! Panzanella is a classic Tuscan salad made from juicy tomatoes and chunks of day-old bread. Roasting the tomatoes, adding organic corn and using less bread (gluten-free, of course) gives this version a fresh and tasty twist.
A delicious way and unique way to enjoy salad, this Panzanella Salad Recipe is simple, and quick to throw together too! Ready to learn more? Keep reading!
Panzanella Salad Recipe
Creating a healthy Panzanella Salad Recipe most definitely can be done, and actually, isn’t all too difficult! Most Panzanella Salads are quite healthy to begin with, and don’t require too many swaps to clean them up. After all, panzanella salad is mostly just veggies, bread, and herbs. However, there are some things to keep in mind when choosing the most healthful ingredients, beginning with corn…
Organic Corn
Although it is hard to prove, I believe the health risks of genetically modified corn are real. Unfortunately, around 92% of corn currently available is GMO. Thankfully, there is a way around this! Since Genetic engineering is prohibited in any USDA organic foods, if you are into clean eating, I think the safest thing to do is just buy organic corn.
Does Organic Corn Exist?
There seems to be a great deal of misinformation about corn buzzing around the internet these days. One of the myths is that organic corn does not exist. This is absolutely not true.
In fact, many sweet corn available in your grocery store’s produce section is not GMO corn. Field corn, which is harvested later than sweet corn and is processed to be turned into oil, high-fructose corn syrup or other products, is the corn that’s typically genetically modified.
The best bet for avoiding GMO foods alongside pesticides is to buy organic produce whenever possible. However, we do recognize that buying 100% organic 100% of the time can expensive. Because of this, we use EWG’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Lists to help us decipher what is most important for buying organic. These lists are great for learning about which produce contains the highest amount of pesticides, vs. those with much lower, and safer levels. Click here to learn more!
Choose Healthy Bread
While we understand that not everyone chooses a gluten-free diet, we personally do to help reduce inflammation, and keep our autoimmune diseases under wraps. Besides, there are so many delicious, and healthy gluten-free options these days, that we don’t even notice a difference in flavor anymore!
One of the biggest problems with gluten, is that it’s just simply not what it use to be. So no, a huge surge in gluten intolerances didn’t just randomly happen for no good reason. Gluten has been so genetically modified, treated with pesticides, and tampered with over the years, that it has become incredibly difficult to digest, and pro-inflammatory for a huge percentage of the population.
So what’s our favorite brand of gluten-free bread? That’s hard, because there are just too many! Right now, we’re really loving Canyon Bakehouse and Liberated Specialty Foods, but the options are really endless!
All-in-all, you can use whatever bread you prefer for this recipe, but gluten-free is our preference for ourselves.
Turn Your Summer Panzanella Salad Into a Meal
There’s something about summer and the kitchen. As I plan for Memorial Day, I always find myself gravitating towards quick and easy dinner recipes. If you find yourself in the same boat then you can easily turn this Panzanella into a complete meal with the addition of a few chopped hardboiled eggs.
Click here to learn how to make the Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs!
Ready to learn how to make this Panzanella Salad Recipe? Let’s get into it!
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Panzanella Salad Recipe
This Panzanella Salad Recipe is perfect for enjoying as the weather warms up! Easy, simple, and healthy, everyone will love this salad!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4
Ingredients
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 2 1/2 cups fresh organic corn
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, or unrefined avocado oil
- Himalayan pink salt, to taste
- Ground pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons diced shallots
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon raw honey
- 3 pieces gluten free bread, broken into small bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Arrange the tomatoes and corn kernels on one of the parchment-lined baking sheets. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil and season lightly with salt and pepper to taste.
- Arrange the bread pieces on the other baking sheet. Transfer both baking sheets to the oven.
- Cook the tomatoes and corn for 15 to 20 minutes, or until soft.
- Cook the bread pieces for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup oil, shallots, vinegar, garlic, Dijon mustard and honey. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set vinaigrette aside.
- Remove the corn, tomatoes and bread from the oven. Set aside to cool.
- Transfer the cooled corn, tomatoes and bread to a large serving bowl.
- Drizzle in the vinaigrette.
- Add the basil and gently toss to coat.
- Let Panzanella sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving, and enjoy!
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LOOKING FOR MORE CLEAN EATING DINNER RECIPES?
If you liked the Summer Panzanella Salad, be sure to check out a full month’s menu of delicious healthy dinner recipes (including weekly shopping lists!) in our Clean Cuisine Dinners digital cookbook.
