Grilled Panzanella Salad is a perfect family meal for the warmer months! Made with grilled veggies, hearty bread, chicken sausage, and a delicious vinaigrette, this easy Panzanella Salad with Chicken Sausage will fill your family up without weighing them down!
The recipe for Grilled Panzanella Salad with Chicken Sausage is one of my favorite recipes.
This grilled salad is easy to make, low fat, high protein, and utterly satisfying. Plus, my entire family devours this salad when it is placed on the dinner table, which makes this Mom happy!
Unlike a traditional Panzanella salad that is made with stale bread and rarely features lettuce, this grilled salad is made with grilled bread, along with freshly grilled vegetables. It is smokey, hearty, and good for you!
How To Make Grilled Panzanella Salad
- Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together all the ingredients.
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat
- Prepare the vegetables, by cutting the heart of romaine in half lengthwise, slicing the onion, and cutting the zucchini and peppers in half.
- Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Prepare the bread by slicing it into ½-inch thick slices and lightly brushing with olive oil.
- Place the prepared sausage, peppers, zucchini, and onions on the main part of the grill. Add the bread slices to the top rack of the grill.
- Cover and grill for 3-4 minutes. Open the grill and flip the veggies, sausage, and bread.
- Cover and grill for another minute or two and then remove bread slices.
- Allow vegetables and chicken sausage to finish grilling, for about another 2-3 minutes.
- Remove vegetables and sausage from the grill.
- If desired, grill the halved romaine lettuce head for 2-3 minutes. This step is optional, but if you would like a smoky char to your lettuce it is a great tip to grill your lettuce as well.
- Dice up grilled sausage, veggies, bread, and romaine lettuce into bite-size pieces.
- Slice tomatoes and add to grilled salad ingredients.
- Toss with vinaigrette and freshly grated Parmesan, if desired, and serve immediately.
More Grilling Recipes
If you gave this Panzanella Salad a try, I would love for you to leave a review and comment below.
Grilled Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
For Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon juice and zest
- 1 teaspoon capers
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp oregano dried
For Panzanella Salad
- 10 ounces Chicken Sausages
- 1 cup sweet mini peppers
- 1 pint grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 8 oz Italian Bread
- 1 large head of romaine
- 4 small zucchini
- 1 sweet onion optional
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon each of kosher salt and pepper
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving optional
Instructions
Salad Dressing
- Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking all the ingredients together, until well combined and set to the side.
Grilled Panzanella Salad
- Preheat grill to medium.
- Prepare vegetables by cutting head of lettuce in half, peppers in half, zucchini in half lengthwise and onion in large slices. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Slice bread into ½ inch thick slices. Lightly brush with olive oil.
- Place sausage, peppers, zucchini, and onions on the main part of the grill. Add the bread slices to the top rack of the grill. Cover and grill for 3-4 minutes. Open grill and flip the veggies, sausage and bread. Cover and grill for another minute or two and then remove bread slices. Allow vegetables and chicken sausage to finish grilling, for about another 2-3 minutes. Remove vegetables and sausage from the grill. If desired, grill the halved romaine lettuce head for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove everything from the grill and dice up into small bite size chunks.
- Toss with tomatoes, vinaigrette, and grate fresh Parmesan over the entire salad. Serve immediately or after 1 hour to allow the bread to soften.
Stephanie Stuart
This panzanella salad is making my mouth water. I wish I had this for lunch today instead of what I had!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Stephanie. It is so good!
pam (Sidewalk Shoes)
Why did I never think to add sausage to a panzanella salad?!
Kristen Chidsey
Well, now I have inspired you to try it 🙂
Marye
Yum! This is definitely a salad my family would eat! It looks fantastic. Grilling makes such a difference. 🙂
Kristen Chidsey
Grilling brings out the best in just about everything!
CJ Huang
I love how grilling brings out the flavors in food! This salad sounds wonderful. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and sharing this on Five Friday Finds! I'm looking forward to what you share this week. 🙂
Kristen Chidsey
Grilling is key in my opinion for this recipe to shine!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Michelle! Let me know how you like my version and then I would love to try your version as well. Such a perfect summer dish!
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life
I really love Panzanella Salad! So glad to see your recipe here! I have another one I like to make but I will be glad to try yours as well! Thanks for linking it up with us at #FoodieFridays!
Rebekah
I would have never thought to grill everything. I will have to try that. Thanks for sharing with us at the Bloggers Brags!
Kristen Chidsey
Grilling takes this dish to a whole new level of crazy good!! Enjoy!!
Allison Dawson
Ohhh, you know the Dawson family loves chicken sausage! What grocery store do you find this sausage brand at, Kristen? Thanks for sharing and hope you all are having a great summer!
Kristen Chidsey
Hey Allison! I buy Thin n Trim at Kroger by the hotdog section. They are on sale this week too 🙂
Meeghan
This looks really awesome. Thanks for posting!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Meeghan. I do think it is totally awesome. I hope you try it and agree!
Shirley Wood
Anything the entire family eats, has got to be good! Pinned to my Summer Salads board! Stopping by from Bloggers Brags.
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks for the Pin Shirley!! I hope your family devours as mine did 🙂