Grilled Italian-bread salad with summer vegetables: Perfect for a BBQ
When I told chef in training about this recipe, I heard crickets. As I’ve mentioned, he has a tough time faking enthusiasm for salad…or any meal comprised almost entirely of vegetables. But I assured him this recipe kicked ‘veggies for dinner’ up a notch. So he fired up the BBQ while I prepared the Grilled Italian-bread salad with summer vegetables from Chatelaine’s Summer’s Best cookbook.
With goodies like zucchini, eggplant, onion, yellow pepper, and tomato, this is one colourful ‘salad.’ The veggies (minus the tomatoes) are sliced, brushed with olive oil, and grilled until tender (a vegetable grilling basket would be ideal for this, but straight on the grill worked fine for us). You also grill the bread slices at the same time as the veggies, but only until just toasted. I’d (highly) recommend watching the bread closely as it goes from golden to burnt to a crisp in a shockingly short time (we had to do this step twice).
While the veggies and bread grilled I prepared the dressing, a combo of balsamic vinegar, minced garlic, salt, and olive oil. Once the vegetables and bread were finished, I cut them into bite-sized pieces along with the tomatoes, and tossed them with the dressing. The final step is top the dish with the crumbled goat cheese and shredded basil. Voila, bread salad!
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The end result was so good even chef in training had seconds. And while I served his with grilled chicken on the side, I opted to eat the salad alone as my meal and was pleasantly full after a bowl. This would make a great addition to a BBQ or picnic, as it’s delicious served either hot or cold. And depending on your preferences, you could easily swap veggies (for example, I’m not a huge eggplant fan, so I cut it back and added more zucchini). I’m certain this salad will hit our BBQ at least a few more times before we close it up for the season.
Try this recipe: Grilled Italian-bread salad with summer vegetables
