Panzanella Salad with Sourdough Croutons

As we get ready to celebrate Memorial Day, I think I'm most excited for a long weekend. An extra day gives you a little more breathing room, a chance to break from routine, reconnect, and recharge. I'm eager to be spending time with my little family. My husband and I have already made a few small plans.

Get up at 5:30am so we can work out together before the kids wake up, I'm ready to feel the burn! Pack up the car with snack and water and try out a new hiking trail at Mt. Charlston, hopefully the waterfall is full and rushing. Breakfast in the back yard is one of the kids' favorite things to do. So, we will be making my strawberry white chocolate chip pancakes on the black stone. I only make these pancakes on very special occasions.

Diana wants to help me make homemade gram crackers and marshmallows so we can make smores' at our backyard fire pit while we watch one of our favorite family moves on our projector. Of course, there will be church and lot of down time too. We will absolutely be BBQing at some point, and I plan on making my panzanella salad with sourdough croutons to go on the side of our grilled steak! The beauty of this salad is that it is very personable. Use whatever pantry staples you may have at home I promise it will be wonderful.

Ingredients:

Salad:

2-3 slices of sourdough bread, cubed

2-3 heirloom tomatoes, large chop

1-2 jarred roasted red bell peppers, large chop

Red onion, sliced thin

A few jarred artichoke hearts

A few olives

A hand full or 2 of baby arugula

Parmigiano cheese, to taste

Olive oil, salt and pepper, for the croutons

Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of grainy mustard

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Link to my favorite wooden bowl

Link to my olive oil bottle

Method:

Start by making the croutons, toss the bread cubes with a good drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Tumble them onto a baking sheet and place it under the broiler until golden brown. Keep an eye on them, they can burn fast. Once the croutons are brown, set them aside to cool. To make the dressing, simply add all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together and set aside.

Put all the salad ingredients in a large bowl and top with the sourdough croutons and drizzle over some of the dressing. Give it a toss and see if it needs more dressing.

For us, this long weekend is all about family. While it won't be packed with extravagant outings or major events, it will be filled with the kind of memories that linger long after the weekend ends. What will stay with us isn’t the activities but the unfiltered joy of being surrounded by the people who know you best.

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I sure hope you give this panzanella salad with sourdough croutons a try this weekend! If you want to stay in the loop and never miss another blog post, subscribe to my email list today!

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