Cornbread Panzanella Salad

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It’s a panzanella but different. When I was in my teens and first started eating salads, I know that croutons were part of the reason why, so I have always loved a bread salad. Here I use cornbread instead of Italian bread, sourdough bread or ciabatta.

Tomatoes and corn are perfect together. Even though this salad doesn’t have actual corn kernels in it, you get that corn flavor and more when you pair cornbread and cherry tomatoes.

There’s no better way to enjoy tomatoes during peak season than in a salad. Even though you can buy tomatoes at the grocery any day of the year, summer is when we should be eating them raw because that’s when they taste best.

What is a Panzanella Salad?

I like to think of a panzanella salad, caprese salad and Greek salad as cousins. I realize 2 of the 3 are Italian and one is Greek, but they all start with tomatoes. From there, it is the additions that differentiate them. You can absolutely use your creativity to make a mash up of all three depending what you have in your kitchen.

Traditionally, a panzanella salad has stale bread, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers and basil tossed with vinegar and olive oil. Since I usually freeze bread before it gets stale, I toast it in the oven to dry it out, and in the process, it turns golden brown and gets wonderful toasted flavor, which wouldn’t be the case if it was just stale.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Cornbread: It is up to you whether its homemade buttermilk cornbread made from scratch, a mix or a store-bought loaf.  
• Tomatoes: My preference for this salad are cherry tomatoes. You can use grape tomatoes, but they won’t be as juicy. I like small tomatoes because they hold their shape and pulp when you mix them in a salad unlike larger tomatoes cut into chunks.
• Cucumbers: English cucumbers or Persian cucumbers, also known as mini cucumbers, have much fewer seeds and more delicate skin than regular cucumbers, so they are always great in salads.
• Red onions: Typically, you would thinly slice onions for a panzanella. I like finely dicing them. They end up more distributed throughout the salad when you prep them this way.
• Basil: If you have bigger fresh basil leaves, tear them. This herb has a lot of flavor, so you don’t want to end up with a huge bite of basil that overpowers the tomatoes and cucumbers.
• Red wine vinaigrette: I whisk a combination of minced garlic, whole grain mustard, kosher salt, black pepper, red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Optional Additions

As mentioned, you can customize your salad. Because the base ingredients, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and cornbread work with lots of other ingredients, this is easy to do.

• Corn: Try fresh, roasted or grilled corn kernels.
• Cheese: Torn fresh mozzarella or burrata, grated parmesan or crumbled feta would all be great.
• Cooked grains: Go with quinoa, barley, farro or even pearl couscous.
• Nuts such as toasted walnuts or pine nuts give the salad crunch.
• Olives: Try pitted Kalamata olives, whole, halved or chopped.
• Pesto: Whisk a tablespoon of basil pesto into the vinaigrette to make the salad more herby.

How To Make This Cornbread Panzanella Salad

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

1. Prep the cornbread. Toss the cubed bread with olive oil on a baking sheet. Arrange the bread in a single layer.

2. Toast the cornbread for for 20-25 minutes, flipping over halfway through baking. It should be golden brown and crisp at the edges.

3. Make the vinaigrette. You can do this while the cornbread is in the oven. Whisk the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, vinegar and oil in a small bowl.

4. Assemble the salad. Combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and basil in a large bowl. 

5. Stir in half the vinaigrette.

6. Fold in the toasted cornbread. I wait to do this because the consistency of cornbread is more delicate and crumbly than bread with a hearty crust. Drizzle in additional dressing as desired.

Serving

This panzanella salad is a side dish that you can serve with vegetarian main dishes such as barbecue tofu veggie skewers, roasted Mediterranean vegetables & halloumi, sheet pan gnocchi or baked feta with summer veggies. It goes well with proteins such as chicken, shrimp, salmon or steak.

More Salad Recipes

Roasted Bell Pepper Salad
Peach Caprese Salad
Chickpea Greek Salad
Avocado Corn Salad
Zucchini Corn Salad
Quinoa Chickpea Salad
Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad

Find more salad ideas in my seasonal salad roundup featuring leafy green salads, bean salads and pasta salads.