There are days when you just don’t feel like cooking; days when it’s too hot to turn on the oven; and days when you haven’t been shopping and need to use up the remnants of your refrigerator. Yesterday was such a day for me – I arrived home late from a day out; it was still 32 degrees and not a scrap of cool air in the house; and I hadn’t planned anything for a light supper. A quick search from shelf to shelf in my refrigerator revealed a small lettuce, a solitary cooked chicken breast and some tomatoes – it wasn’t looking too promising ….
However I did remember a delicious salad a friend used to make when the purse strings were tight and thought I might be able to rustle up something similar and just as tasty. It’a a Panzanella Salad which has leafy salad as its base but then added croutons or torn bread with extras. I knew I had a little stale ciabatta in the bread bin and a jar of roasted peppers/capsicum in the cupboard, so voila! supper was quickly constructed and enjoyed.
Don’t feel duty bound to use the same ingredients as I have – next time I might just replace the chicken with some cheese or deli meat scraps; add some leftover cooked vegetables instead of the roasted jar ones; and add some cold sliced new potatoes instead of the bread – whatever I find and whatever you have ….
Let’s hear it for kitchen scraps! They can taste seriously good …
LEAFY PANZANELLA
Ingredients
METRIC/US
4 slices stale ciabatta bread (or your bread choice or see above)
225 g/8 oz ripe tomatoes
¼ red onion, finely sliced
200 g/7 oz roasted peppers/capsicum from a jar, drained and chopped
1 roasted skinless and boneless chicken breast
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 mini Romaine or little Gem lettuce
3 tbsp French style dressing (low-fat or fat-free if preferred)
1 small bunch basil, leaves torn (optional)
Method
- Tear the bread into bite-sized chunks. Chop the tomatoes and place in a bowl. Add the onion and peppers. Shred the chicken into pieces, add to the bowl and season generously to taste.
- Toss in the bread chunks and mix well so that the juices combine and start to soak into the bread.
- Slice the lettuce into ribbons and add to the salad.
- Add the dressing and toss again. Add the basil leaves if using, toss again and serve.
SERVES 2
WLS PORTION: ½-1
CALORIES PER PORTION (using fat-free French dressing): 380
PROTEIN: 26.5g
CARBOHYDRATE: 57.2g
FAT: 5.5g
Image courtesy of www.makemoreofsalad.com