Vancouver’s Rosie Daykin does it all: She’s an accomplished interior designer, recipe developer, businesswoman (she owns Butter Baked Goods in the city’s MacKenzie Heights neighbourhood) and an avid gardener. Her green thumb is on full display in her new book, The Side Gardener: Recipes & Notes from My Garden (out on April 9, 2024). The volume is filled with recipes perfect for the kitchen gardener, starring veggies often grown in backyards and including tips for growing the needed ingredients. This panzanella salad is designed to be customized: “Many of the recipes in this book allow for a lot of flexibility on the produce used, given that we might not all choose to grow the same things – so don’t hesitate to switch things up in this salad if you need to,” writes Daykin. “You can always replace the arugula with another leaf of your choice or green beans with asparagus. You could use raw beets in place of the radishes or chunks of zucchini in lieu of cucumber, but trust me when I tell you there is no substitute for the goodness of toasty, salty, olive oily bread chunks.”
Garden Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 4 thick slices sourdough bread cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- ¼ lb (113 g) green beans trimmed
- 4 large tomatoes seeds removed and cut into 8 wedges each
- 1 cup (140 g) fresh English peas
- 6-8 radishes thinly sliced
- 1 English cucumber cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces
- 1 big handful arugula
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves roughly torn
- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives
Dressing
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ cup olive oil
Instructions
Salad
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the cubed bread pieces in a large bowl and drizzle with the olive oil.
- Use your hands or a large spoon to toss and coat the pieces.
- Spread the bread across the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and Italian seasoning. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, until the bread is just starting to get a little crispy and brown. Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool.
- Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Gently lower the trimmed green beans into the boiling water and allow them to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until a lovely bright green. Remove the beans from the heat and drain through a colander. Run cold water over the beans for a minute or so and then set them aside to drain.
Dressing
- In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Slowly add the olive oil while continuing to whisk until the dressing is fully combined.
To Serve
- In a large serving bowl, combine the tomatoes, green beans, fresh peas, radishes, cucumber, arugula, basil, chives and bread. Dress the salad and toss to combine.
