Greek Panzanella

Hello to Salad Wednesday! We finished up Soup Wednesday last month and will be running salads as our weekly feature for March and May....for April we have something really great planned, but we'll share those details closer to the date.

Our first salad is a panzanella which is a bread salad soaked in vinaigrette. This one has a Mediterranean flair and is from the Wanderlust Kitchen.

Check out Salad Wednesday 2013.

Ingredients: 
For the Croutons
-¼ c. unsalted butter, divided
-1 small loaf crusty bread, cut into bite-sized pieces

For the Vinaigrette
-½ tsp. Dijon mustard
-¼ c. red wine vinegar
-½ c. extra virgin olive oil
-½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-½ tsp. dried oregano

For the Salad
-1 English cucumber, halved, seeded, and sliced ¼ inch thick
-1 red bell pepper, chopped
-1 orange bell pepper, chopped
-1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
-½ red onion, sliced
-½ c. kalamata olives, pitted and halved
-½ lb. feta cheese, cut into bite sized pieces
-1 green onion, sliced thinly
-Kosher salt

Melt half the butter in a skillet.
Toss half of the bread cubes until coated.
Repeat.
Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350. 

Mix all ingredients for the vinaigrette in a small bowl.

Toss the bread cubes with the vinaigrette, add in all of the vegetables and crumbled feta cheese.

Serve. 

If you want to prep this ahead of time, keep the bread in a ziplock bag and the vinaigrette separate.
Mix everything together when you're ready to serve.  

This panzanella turned out really great. All of the flavors came through and the leftovers were good the next day, I had been a little worried that the bread would get too soggy. The leftovers were worth saving and eating for dinner the next evening.