Beet Panzanella

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5 from 18 votes

This delicious twist on a classic Panzanella, an Italian bread salad, uses pickled beets instead of tomatoes.

Prep Time20

Cook Time5

Total Time25

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 320kcal

Author: Dr. Sonali Ruder

Ingredients

Salad:

6 ounces whole grain bread torn into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion
1 jar (16 ounces) Aunt Nellie’s Whole Pickled Beets, cut in half
2 navel oranges
1 cup sliced English cucumber
3 cups baby arugula
½ cup fresh herbs like parsley and dill
¼ cup crumbled feta or goat cheese

Dressing:

1 tablespoon pickling liquid from Aunt Nellie’s Whole Pickled Beets jar
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Toss the bread with the olive oil on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes, tossing occasionally, until golden brown. Remove from oven.
Place the onion slices in a bowl and pour a few tablespoons of the pickling liquid from the jar of beets over them. Let it sit while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Cut the top and bottom ends off the oranges. Place the oranges flat on a cutting board and cut down the sides to remove the peel. Working over a bowl to collect any juices, cut out the orange segments, leaving the membranes behind. Once all of the orange segments are removed, squeeze the remaining membranes to get all of the juice. Reserve the juice for the salad dressing.
Place the orange segments in a large salad bowl along with the beets, toasted bread, cucumber, arugula, herbs and cheese. Remove the onion slices from the pickling liquid and add them to the bowl.
To make the dressing, whisk 1 tablespoon of the pickling liquid from the jar of beets with the orange juice, mustard, and olive oil. Season the dressing with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients in the bowl and toss to combine. Serve.

Notes

Because I use the pickling liquid from the beets to make the salad dressing, the dressing has a deep pink color that will turn the salad ingredients a pretty pink when you toss everything together. If you don’t like this, you can use 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar sweetened with a pinch if sugar or honey instead of the pickling liquid.

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