Green Bean Panzanella Salad – aka bread salad. Green beans, shaved fennel, olives, and feta all tossed with crusty bread cubes that soak up a tangy red wine vinaigrette!
When the green beans start producing in my garden, they produce daily, by the pound. This Green Bean Salad is a great way to eat your veggies and keep up with that garden! The earlier you pick your beans, the more tender and delicious they’ll be!
My favorite way to eat green beans is simple. Trim, boil for about 5 min or until just tender, then blister them in a sauté pan with olive oil, salt/pepper and sliced almonds. It’s so yummy.
Abundant as my green beans have become, I have been ripped off by the squirrels when it comes to zucchini. First they came for my raspberries, now they have been nipping flowers off all my squash and pumpkin plants.
Today I caught one red handed when I returned from work. It’s so frustrating! Full squirrel combat has commenced.
How to Make this Green Bean Salad
This green bean salad is the perfect way to take ordinary green beans to the next level. Feta cheese, paper thin onions and fennel, olive and a red wine dressing all tossed with bread cubes for a Mediterranean panzanella.
What is panzanella?
What is panzanella?Panzanella is a bread salad. Meaning there are bread cubes tossed with the salad that soak up the dressing to create bursts of flavor.
You’ll want to toss the bread cubes into the salad just before it’s served, but to tell you the truth, I love to eat the bread after it’s completely soaked and spongy from the dressing.
Tossed with salty olives and feta, this is a satisfying Mediterranean-style lunch.
Step 1: Cook green beans.
A super quick dip in boiling water followed by an ice bath cooks these beans up nice and green, still maintaining some bite.
Step 2: Combine beans, fennel, feta, olives, vinegar + salt.
Mix all the salad ingredients and let marinate for 15 minutes.
The easiest way to prepare this salad is with a mandoline
. It will allow you to slice the fennel and onions paper thin – you want them to be a delicate flavor with each bite of salad. If you don’t have one, no worries, just try to get the slices as thin as you can.
Step 3: Toast Bread Cubes
Place 1-inch cubed bread under the broiler for a few minutes until crisp.
Step 4: Toss bread cubes into salad.
The toasted bread cubes will maintain texture, but start to soak up all the excess red wine dressing.
Green beans, shaved fennel, feta and olives tossed with toasted bread cubes tossed in a vinegary dressing for a Mediterranean style panzanella.
- 1 pound green beans trimmed
- 1 cup loosely packed shaved fennel bulb
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped olives
- 4 ounces feta cheese crumbled
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 slices whole grain crusty bread about 1 inch thick and about the width of your palm
- kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 tsp sumac optional
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Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside.
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add beans; simmer until just tender, about 5 minutes. Plunge beans into ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Once cooled, drain the water.
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Toss together green beans, fennel, onion, olives, feta, oil, vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl; season with pepper. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes.
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Preheat broiler. Place bread on a baking sheet. Broil, turning once, until bread darkens, about 4 minutes. Cut bread into 1-inch cubes; add to salad, and toss to combine. Sprinkle with sumac, if desired.
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