As the weather starts to get colder, my mind turns to healthy fall dishes. Fall Panzanella Salad has become one of my favorite fall salad recipes, due to its hearty, healthy, natural charm. Packed with fresh seasonal vegetables, nutritious nuts, rustic bread, and creamy feta cheese, it’s a great choice for a great-tasting dish. Stay with me to find out more about how to make this autumn twist on an Italian classic.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
Both beautiful AND tasty, fall panzanella has become one of my favorite fall salad recipes. You’ll love it, because:
What is Panzanella?
Panzanella is a classic Italian bread salad that makes use of stale bread. A classic panzanella salad uses Mediterranean summer produce like tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and basil, allowing the pieces of bread to soak up the juices.
Plenty of extra virgin olive oil and red vinegar finish off the dish, and it’s often served chilled, for a perfect refreshing summer salad. My seasonal panzanella is a twist on this classic, served warm, and using roasted fall vegetables to make the dish appropriate to the season.
Inspiration Behind the Fall Panzanella Salad Recipe
I love crunchy bits in salads, and very commonly toss a handful of croutons into any salad, to make it more filling and to add some extra crunch! I’ve made classic panzanellas many times, and even experimented a little, adding crunchy tofu cubes instead of bread for a low-carb option. But now I thought it was time to try a seasonal update, and boy, am I glad I did! With pumpkin, beets, onions, and broccoli, my autumn panzanella salad has a rainbow of healthy colors, plus crunchy cubes of bread and toasted walnuts to finish it all off.
Fall Panzanella Salad Ingredient list
To make fall Panzanella, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Ingredient Substitutes
If you’re missing any of the above seasonal ingredients, you can sub in one of the following:
Red wine vinegar: White wine or apple cider vinegar are fine substitutes.
Variations
How to Make Fall Panzanella Salad with Easy Cooking Steps
Cooking Tools
To make this recipe, you’ll need:
- Chopping board
- Kitchen knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Two large ovenproof dishes or baking sheets
- Large mixing bowl or salad bowl
Cooking Method
Preparation Steps
- Assemble all the tools and ingredients.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C.)
- Break the broccoli into florets.
- Peel the beets, and cut into wedges.
- Peel and slice the onion.
- Peel the pumpkin and cut into cubes.
Cooking Steps
- Put the broccoli florets and pumpkin cubes into a large roasting tin. Add the garlic powder, chili flakes, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper and toss to mix.
- In a separate roasting tray, add the beets, onion, and cherry tomatoes. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and season well.
- Roast the pumpkin and broccoli mix for about 30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the pumpkin is cooked and browned in places, and the broccoli is lightly colored and crispy at the edges.
- Roast the beets and tomato mix for about 25 minutes, until the tomatoes have burst open and the onions are soft and sweet.
- Meanwhile, toast the bread, then cut the bread into cubes. Core the apple and slice into bite-sized pieces. Put the chunks of bread and apples into a large mixing bowl along with the walnuts, and drizzle over the final tablespoon of olive oil and the red wine vinegar.
- When the vegetables have finished roasting, add the contents of both roasting pans to the bowl. Toss together gently to combine and season to taste.
- Divide between 4 bowls and scatter over the crumbled feta cheese. Enjoy!
Alternative Method
Best Tips to Ace this Recipe
Time-Saving Tips
What to Serve with Fall Panzanella Salad?
Thinking about what to eat with a panzanella salad? My fall panzanella salad is filling enough just as it is, as a family dinner or informal lunch.
But you could also serve it as a Thanksgiving side, or as part of a salad buffet for an autumn BBQ or grill party. For a perfect side dish selection, match it with other colorful side dishes like:
How to Store Fall Panzanella?
This recipe is best eaten fresh. You can refrigerate and eat leftovers cold the following day, but you will notice that it’s not as good, and you will get soggy bread. Far better is just to roast the vegetables, and refrigerate them until ready to eat. They should stay good in the fridge for up to 4 days.
When you want to enjoy the fall panzanella, warm the vegetables in an oven set at medium heat for about 15 minutes, then combine with the toast, nuts, and apples.
Conclusion
Try out my Fall Panzanella Salad and see if you agree with me that it deserves its place in the all-time ranking of best fall salads! Feel free to experiment with slightly different vegetables, or maybe you want to try some different nuts, blue cheese, or goat cheese? Let me know in the comments how you get on!
More Healthy Vegetarian Salad Recipes
Looking for more healthy vegetarian salads for fall? Try out one of these:
FAQs
Panzanella salad is made of bread cubes tossed together with seasonal vegetables, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Tomatoes are almost always used, and other ingredients can include cucumbers, onions, fresh herbs, or other seasonal vegetables.
Panzanella is an Italian portmanteau word, combining pane – bread – with zanella – a soup bowl. The literal meaning is “bread in a bowl”. It is also known as panmolle or pan lavato, which both literally translate as “washed bread”, referring to the need for stale bread to soak up liquid to become palatable.
In the USA, an Italian salad usually contains tomatoes, pepperoncinis, onions, black olives, and mixed leaves. But there are many different types of Italian salads, including panzanella, caprese, insalata di riso, and Sicilian fennel and orange salad.
You can eat salad with bread on the side, or cut bread into croutons and mix it through the rest of the ingredients to provide extra flavor and crunch.
Roasted Fall Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head of broccoli broken into florets
- 2 beets peeled and cut into wedges
- 1 red onion peeled and sliced
- 1 green Granny Smith apple
- 2 slices rustic country bread toasted and cut into cubes
- 2 cups pumpkin cut into ½ inch cubes (about 13 oz)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup toasted walnuts
- 4 ounces feta cheese crumbled
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
Preparation Steps
- Assemble all the tools and ingredients.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C.)
- Break the broccoli into florets.
- Peel the beets, and cut into wedges.
- Peel and slice the onion.
- Peel the pumpkin and cut into cubes.
Cooking Steps
- Put the broccoli florets and pumpkin cubes into a large roasting tin. Add the garlic powder, chili flakes, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper and toss to mix.
- In a separate roasting tray, add the beets, onion, and cherry tomatoes. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and season well.
- Roast the pumpkin and broccoli mix for about 30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the pumpkin is cooked and browned in places, and the broccoli is lightly colored and crispy at the edges.
- Roast the beets and tomato mix for about 25 minutes, until the tomatoes have burst open and the onions are soft and sweet.
- Meanwhile, toast the bread, then cut the bread into cubes. Core the apple and slice into bite-sized pieces. Put the chunks of bread and apples into a large mixing bowl along with the walnuts, and drizzle over the final tablespoon of olive oil and the red wine vinegar.
- When the vegetables have finished roasting, add the contents of both roasting pans to the bowl. Toss together gently to combine and season to taste.
- Divide between 4 bowls and scatter over the crumbled feta cheese. Enjoy!
