This Roasted Winter Panzanella Salad with Balsamic Honey Mustard Dressing is ridiculously tasty, warm, comforting and healthy all at the same time!
Roasted sausages, sweet potatoes and tomatoes, tossed with spinach, basil, and hearty chunks of croutons & goat cheese, this warm panzanella is the perfect cold weather alternative to classic panzanella salad!
I have never turned down dessert. EVER. That might be an odd way to start off a post about a salad, but the fact is, whether it’s January or July, my sweet tooth is just as sharp for delicious desserts!
My abs don’t poke through my skin, and that’s okay. I’d rather die not wondering what that banana cream pie tastes like.
Having said that, you can’t subsist on desserts alone. I mean that would be ideal, but apparently life just doesn’t work that way. You still gotta get that 5+ a day fruit and veggies, so that you don’t feel too bad about that sweet tooth.
Winter panzanella
On days like that, I love me some of this Roasted Winter Panzanella Salad! I love panzanella in any form, especially the traditional version with nothing but juicy tomatoes, bread, onions and basil.
Classic panzanella salad is a Tuscan salad, starring tomatoes and chunks of soaked stale bread, that’s typically enjoyed in the summer.
Except it’s January and it’s winter where I live now, so cold greens, cold cheese, cold veggies, cold dressing… it all seemed a little too frosty and unwelcoming. Solution? Warm winter panzanella salad with roasted tomatoes and potatoes. Besides, the classic version and my chicken and melon salad, this is one of our favorite healthy salad recipes.
Hearty, healthy, packed with flavor, yet warm and cozy like anything that’s worth keeping. But if you’re the chill sort of fellow, don’t worry, you can have it cold too. Or at room temperature.
Recipe highlights
- And the best part is that this salad is super easy to make.
- And it’s very versatile too. I deviated just a little from the traditional for this recipe and included roasted sausages (mainly for Mr K’s benefit), sweet potatoes, and roma tomatoes, tossed with spinach, basil, garlic and big chunks of croutons and little chunks of delicious goat cheese for richness.
- And it’s topped with a drizzle of balsamic & honey mustard dressing for that final touch.
Complement it with your favorite winter drink recipes, and you have yourself an incredibly cozy winter meal!
So get into your PJs, put on your favorite episode of Parks and Rec on Netflix, and sit back with a plateful of this roasted panzanella salad, because hearty, healthy and cozy don’t come much better than this and I bet even those Pawneeans would love this salad! 🙂
How to make winter panzanella salad
You can roast the sweet potatoes, tomatoes and sausages together in the same pan with garlic. Then toss it all together with the croutons that will soak up all the wonderful juices from the tomatoes, spinach, basil and then finally, that glorious balsamic dressing.
You can make this ahead of time too, because it actually tastes even better after a while because it lets all those flavors mingle and the croutons to soak up all the juices.
Which is why it’s important to dry out the bread in the oven (hence croutons) so that they don’t become soggy. I almost always use my homemade white bread recipe, which makes the absolute best croutons, so much better than the flimsy store-bought sandwich bread.
Recipe
Roasted Panzanella Salad with Balsamic Honey Mustard dressing
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
Roasted Panzanella Salad
- 28 oz / 800g sweet potatoes cut into ½ inch pieces
- 28 oz / 800g roma tomatoes cut into ½ inch pieces
- 4 cloves of garlic chopped
- 4 – 8 pork or beef sausages enough for 3 – 4 servings
- Drizzle of olive oil
- Generous pinch of salt
- Black pepper to taste
Parmesan Croutons
- 1/2 loaf of bread cut into 1 inch slices, and again into 1 inch pieces
- ¼ cup Parmesan finely grated
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- ½ tbsp thyme leaves
- Drizzle of olive oil
Balsamic Dressing
- 1 ½ tbsp stone ground mustard
- 2 tbsp balsamic Vinegar
- 1 ½ tbsp honey
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp water Optional
- Salt to taste
To serve
- 20 basil leaves chiffonade (cut into fine strips)
- Goat cheese crumbles
- 4 cups of spinach
Instructions:
Croutons
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Toss the bread cubes, olive oil, pepper and parmesan cheese together and spread it out on a tray and roast in the oven until toasted on the outside – 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the heat of your oven). Remove from oven and set aside. Croutons should not be completely dry.
Balsamic Honey Mustard Dressing
- Place all dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Taste and season to your taste. Keep it in the fridge until required.
Roasted Panzanella
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Lightly oil or line a roasting pan. Place the cut sweet potatoes on the pan in a single layer. Sprinkle some salt, olive oil, black pepper and mix well.
- Place the tomatoes and chopped garlic in a bowl and drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle some salt and black pepper and toss to mix. Place the tomatoes on top of the sweet potatoes and place the pan in the preheated oven. Roast for about 40 minutes. Check halfway through to make sure the sweet potatoes and tomatoes aren’t burnt.
- Take the roasting pan briefly out of the oven and place the sausages on top of the tomatoes. Return it to the oven and roast for another 20 – 30 minutes or until the sausages have browned on top.
- Remove the pan from the oven then remove the browned and cooked sausages.
- Add the croutons, spinach and basil to the roasted vegetables and toss to combine.
- Serve with cooked sausages, some goat cheese on top and a drizzle of balsamic dressing.
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
This is truly a restaurant-quality meal, bursting with flavor and made with basic ingredients. You can of course leave out the sausages, if you’d like to keep the dish vegetarian, there’s so much goodness in this dish regardless.
When it’s cold outside and you’re still coming around from that end of year food coma, there’s nothing better than a roasted winter panzanella salad that’s healthy and satisfying at the same time. Seriously try this, your family will love you for it. 🙂
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