One of my favourite salads to make is Panzanella Salad. This is a traditional salad from Tuscany in Italy that uses ripe tomatoes, stale bread and onions.
Although as delicious as it is I wanted to take it a bit further adding some personal touches as well as swapping the bread for a gluten free vegan option, and this is when I came up with the idea of adding Venezuelan Bollitos.
This Tomato & Italian Pesto Summer Vegan Salad really delivers in flavour, substance and nutrition. I love to make it for lunch, dinner or as a side dish.
Print the Recipe
A refreshing super delicious Summer salad that really delivers in flavour, substance and nutrition. Great to make as a lunch, dinner or side dish.
- 4 Vine tomatoes
- 1/2 White onion or a small onion
- 250 gr Black beans or black olives
- 1 small Avocado
- 300 gr Stale bread or Venezuelan Bollitos
- Olive oil to taste
- Salt & Black pepper to taste
- Handful of parsley
- Handful of coriander
- Handful of basil or 3 Tbsp of Italian pesto
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Cut the tomatoes in bite size pieces and add them to a bowl
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Add the chopped onion, black beans or olives, the avocado, and the bread or Venezuelan bollitos.
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Chop the parsley and coriander and add to the bowl.
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Add this point you can the basil leaves chopped or add the Italian pesto.
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Mix everything well until all the ingredients are combined.
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Season with salt, black pepper and olive oil to taste.
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Leave the salad to rest for an hour or so and then serve!
Recipe Video
In this recipe instead of using basil leaves I made an Italian home-made pesto. This makes the salad richer and more flavoursome. Here’s my recipe for Italian Home-Made Pesto Genovese
How to Make Italian Pesto Genovese
In this Summer salad I swapped the basil leaves for my Italian Pesto Genovese recipe to give it a richer texture and boost even more its flavour. This, of course, is optional. You can always just use basil leaves and it will still be delicious and completely vegan.
For this Tomato & Italian Pesto Summer Vegan Salad I also swapped the stale bread for Venezuelan bollitos, and although these are not the most common food around they give the salad a gluten free vegan option. If you want to learn how to make Venezuelan bollitos, leave your comment below and I will be more than happy to make a video tutorial!
