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Home » Salads and Sides » Greek Panzanella Salad with Honey and Watermelon

Greek Panzanella Salad with Honey and Watermelon

By Karon Grieve 6 Comments

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This super tasty Greek panzanella salad with honey and watermelon is a fusion of Greek and Italian cuisine and makes the perfect light lunch or a fun salad to start a meal with friends and family.

Greek Panzanella Salad With Honey And Watermelon

I love a good Greek salad (come on who doesn’t) but how do you improve on such a classic. Well you can add extras that you like personally to make it more ‘you’. Or you can add stuff to make it more filling. I’ve done both here. I’ve added another Greek summer time classic – watermelon. And I’ve gone for some bread to make it more of a filling salad. Oh and there’s honey, gorgeous Greek honey.

top down shot of salad

What is Panzanella salad

Panzanella or panmolle is a Tuscan chopped salad of soaked stale bread, onions and tomatoes that is popular in the summer. It often includes cucumbers, sometimes basil and is dressed with olive oil and vinegar. It’s also popular in other parts of central Italy.

Using bread in a salad is a great way to A. use up slightly aged (I mean day old not ancient) bread, and B. A great way to add more body to a simple salad and make it a meal in itself. It’s a win, win situation really.

spooning honey into salad

The inspiration

This Greek panzanella salad was inspired by honey. I love honey, especially the Greek honey that all my friends make it Crete from their own bee hives on the hillsides around Agia Galini. The Greeks love their honey and just dipping bread into honey is a snack in itself over there.

That got me thinking. What if you made the traditional Greek salad a bit more hearty by adding bread and then drizzled over honey. Then you’re getting that classic Greek honey and bread combo but in a salad.

panzanella salad on plate

Ingredients for this simple salad

  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumber
  • Red peppers
  • Red onion
  • Black olives
  • Water melon
  • Feta
  • Day old Sourdough bread
  • Basil and mint leaves
  • Dried oregano
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon juice
  • Honey
  • Salt and pepper

Fork with watermelon from salad

Making this panzanella Greek salad

  • Firstly tear or chop up the bread into pieces about 2cm in size. You don’t want great hunks of bread that you can’t pick up with a fork. Nor do you want tiny pieces that will just turn into mushy breadcrumbs when the dressing is added.
  • Chop the tomatoes, onions and peppers into bite sized pieces.
  • Mix the bread pieces with all salad ingredients (apart from feta) in a bowl
  • Mix olive oil, lemon juice, Greek yogurt, dried oregano and salt and pepper in a small jar and shake well
  • Pour dressing over salad and lightly toss everything together
  • Sprinkle with feta
  • Drizzle over honey

side view of finished saladWhat type of bread to use?

Ciabatta bread, sourdough bread or other pretty robust breads are best. You want something that will hold it’s own and not completely dissolve. Forget the sliced white! If you don’t happen to have day old bread lurking in the bread bin then lightly bake a couple of slices of fresh bread. This will crisp it enough so that the dressing doesn’t turn it to mush. Instant aging.

Herbs

I’ve used dried oregano (the Greek stuff from the Cretan hillsides) as it has a better flavour than the fresh herb. Fresh basil and mint though. It really is only oregano that I tend to use in dry form as opposed to the fresh herb.

Mint gives a fresh lightness and the basil adds that almost anaseed warmth. It’s a lovely combination.

spoon drizzling honey on salad

How to serve this Greek panzanella salad

I like to serve this simple salad as a lunch dish on it’s own. A glass of chilled white wine and sitting in the garden is the perfect idea. It would also be good as a starter salad served family style in the centre of the table for a meal with family and friends. All dig in and help yourselves.

You could also serve this salad as a side dish with pork chops. It would be the perfect side for my Greek fried meatballs (Keftedes), or try it with my lamb koftas. This salad would also go great with simple roast chicken too.

Looking for more super salad inspiration? Then check these out before you go;

Homemade tzatziki and classic Greek salad

Fresh fig and feta salad with pine nuts

Beetroot and orange salad with feta

Strawberry and salmon salad with spinach and walnuts

Greek watermelon and feta salad with mint

PIN ME FOR LATER

Greek panzanella salad with watermelon and honey pin image

Finally, if you do try this Greek panzanella salad with honey and watermelon recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/rating below. I love hearing from readers and respond to everyone just as soon as I can. Want more Larder Love, then follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest and sign up for my newsletter too.

panzanella salad on plate

Greek panzanella salad with honey and watermelon

Karon
This light yet robust salad is packed with flavourt and makes the perfect light lunch or sharing salad as starter or side with chicken etc
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Leave Comment Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 mins
Course Salad
Cuisine Greek
Servings 2

Ingredients
 

  • 2 slices day old bread or lightly baked fresh bread torn into bite sized pieces
  • 6 tomatoes chopped into quarters
  • 1 red pepper cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 red onion sliced
  • 1/2 cucumber sliced roughly
  • 6 tbsp watermelon cubed
  • 3 tbsp black olives
  • 4 tbsp feta roughly crumbled
  • torn mint and basil leaves
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp runny honey

For the dressing

  • 1 tbsp Greek yogurt (or other plain yogurt)
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • Place all ingredients (apart from feta in a bowl)
  • Add the salad dressing and toss
  • sprinkle over the feta and drizzle with the honey, add salt and pepper

Salad dressing

  • Mix all salad dressing ingredients in small jar and shake well
Keyword salad
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Filed Under: ALL RECIPES, Greek Recipes, Salads and Sides, Vegetarian Recipes

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Comments

  1. Fiona says

    August 3, 2020 at 9:30 am

    5 stars
    Super yummy

    Reply
    • Karon Grieve says

      August 3, 2020 at 9:58 am

      Hi fiona
      Thanks so much
      K

      Reply
  2. Desicart says

    August 6, 2020 at 6:09 am

    Nice blog to follow while preparing recipes.Thank you so much for sharing with us.

    Reply
    • Karon Grieve says

      August 6, 2020 at 8:44 am

      Thanks very much, really appreciate that.
      K

      Reply
  3. Gilly says

    September 5, 2020 at 12:51 pm

    Yummy – Greek salad, honey and watermelon – I will certainly be trying that one. Thank you for posting the recipe!

    Reply
    • Karon Grieve says

      September 6, 2020 at 9:19 am

      Hi Gilly
      Glad you like the recipe. Just mixing up my favourite flavours of Greece in one salad.
      K

      Reply

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