Brighten up your summer dinners with this Instant Pot Potato Panzanella Salad. It’s got fresh juicy tomatoes and crunchy bread in addition to the root veggies to make it hearty. Plus you cook the potatoes in your Instant Pot so your house stays cool!
This is another post in my series of recipes sponsored by the Idaho Potato Commission. You can never have too many recipes for potatoes and this one makes an easy and delicious summer dinner!
The recipe I’m sharing with you today for Instant Pot Potato Panzanella Salad, gives you all that summer tomato flavor and makes it a hearty meal too.
What Can I Make with Fresh Tomatoes?
The thing I love most about this time of the year is the flavor of fresh-picked tomatoes. Growing up in the south, I ate a lot of tomato sandwiches growing up. I still eat quite a few now too, only I make them with Just Mayo and whole grain bread.
Also you can try my Slow Cooker Summer Pasta Sauce with Fresh Basil or you can slow cook them and preserve them in the freezer.
What Is In a Panzanella Salad?
A traditional panzanella salad is based around cubes of stale bread. I’m not sure who first made this, but they were as brilliant as they were thrifty. Toss in fresh summer tomatoes, torn basil leaves straight from the garden, and an olive oil and balsamic dressing.
What’s In Potato Panzanella Salad?
I’ve made my Panzanella salad hearty by adding potatoes and beets. I love how well their textures go with the juicy tomatoes and toasted bread. I have to mention how the bread soaks up all the wonderful flavors.
Make this gluten-free by simply using gluten-free bread. I haven’t made the dressing oil-free yet, but you could try substituting aquafaba for the olive oil, or just tossing with your favorite
Instant Pot Rainbow Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
Instant Pot Ingredients:
- 3 cups purple Idaho® potatoes cut into pieces
- 2 cups beets cut into pieces (I used a combination of golden and candy cane beets, but red are fine)
- 2 cups water
Dressing Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup olive oil , you can sub aquafaba to make it oil-free
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 4 cups stale French or Italian bread cubes or fresh bread cubes baked at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until crunchy
- 4 cups chopped tomatoes I used a combination of heirlooms to get the different colors
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Place the potatoes, beets, and water into your Instant Pot and cook on manual, high pressure, for 12 minutes. (If using red beets, wrap them up in foil so the red doesn’t bleed onto the potatoes)
- Manually release the pressure and remove the lid.
- Pour the Instant Pot ingredients into a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside.
- Mixing the dressing ingredients together in a measuring cup or small bowl
- In a large mixing bowl add the potatoes, beets, tomatoes and the dressing then mix well.
- minutes before serving mix in the stale or toasted bread so that it can soak up some of the dressing. If you are not planning on eating it all in one meal, only mix together what you will eat, store the bread in an air-tight bag separate from the tomato mixture that you will store in the fridge.
- Note: If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can still make this delicious salad. Just cook the potatoes and beets in a pot on your stove over medium heat until they are easily pierced with a fork. Then start on step 3 above.
Kortney says
I love the addition of root vegetables to this salad! Makes it a more rounded meal and perfect for when tomatoes are not at the finest.