Jalapeรฑo Cornbread Panzanella Salad
Updated May 21, 2019
I love traditional panzanella salad, an Italian bread salad with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. It is one of my favorites. I also love creating new recipes, so instead of making the same old panzanella salad I decided to create a panzanella salad with a twist! I made a Jalapeño Cornbread Panzanella Salad that gives the classic panzanella a run for it’s money. It is tasty!
This isn’t your typical salad. You won’t find any leafy greens here. No siree! Instead you get cubes of toasted jalapeño cornbread and lots of other goodies! A carb loaded salad? Who’s in? Both of my hands are raised.
I made a pan of homemade jalapeño cornbread, cut the bread into cubes, and toasted them in the oven. I could have stopped right there and eaten the whole baking sheet, but I had my mind set on this salad so I only ate a couple cubes…or maybe it was a couple of handfuls:) Who’s counting?
If you are feeling lazy, you can use store bought cornbread or a box mix, but I promise you the jalapeño cornbread is worth the extra effort. And it really isn’t hard.
I tossed the jalapeño cornbread cubes with charred sweet corn, avocado, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, and cotija cheese.
I drizzled a simple cilantro lime dressing over the salad and gave it a good toss! We served the Jalapeño Cornbread Panzanella Salad at one of our BBQ’s and it was a smashing success! Everyone loved it!
There aren’t any greens involved, but a salad is a salad. So eat up! This Jalapeño Cornbread Panzanella Salad is delish!
Jalapeรฑo Cornbread Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
For the Jalapeรฑo Cornbread:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup course ground yellow cornmeal
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup fresh sweet corn kernels
- 1 jalapeรฑo diced, seeds removed
For the Dressing:
For the Salad:
- 1 ear charred sweet corn kernels removed from cob
- 1 green pepper diced, seeds removed
- 1 red pepper diced, seeds removed
- 3 medium tomatoes chopped
- 1 large avocado diced, seed removed
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup diced red onion
- 1/4 cup cotija cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 8x8 glass baking dish and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, and eggs until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until combined. Fold in the sweet corn and jalapeรฑo. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool completely.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the cooled cornbread into 1-inch cubes. Place the cubes on a large baking sheet and toast until slightly golden brown, about 20 minutes, turning the cornbread cubes once. Remove the cornbread from the oven and cool completely.
- To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, garlic, cilantro, honey, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine jalapeรฑo cornbread cubes, charred corn, peppers, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, red onion, and cotija cheese in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss. Serve immediately.
Have you tried this recipe?
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I made this a few nights ago and it was fantastic! All the flavors were great together and I was definitely glad I made the cornbread from scratch. I ended up using a serrano because our grocery store was out of jalapenos and I think that probably gave it even more flavor. The only downside was the amount of time it took for the cornbread to cool before I could cut it into cubes and toast it in the oven. Next time around I would probably make that the night before so I could cut it right when I am making the rest of the salad. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
Hi – I made this salad recently and loved it! Thanks for the great recipe.
Salad is very suitable our life. But i like pineapple salad.
My goodness – this looks ridiculously good. Love the idea of adding cornbread into a panzanella. YUM!
I just love a good bread salad and this looks like such an amazing variation on it!
Wondering about the corn in the corn bread, fresh but not cooked?