Gluten Free Balsamic Panzanella Salad (Dairy Free)

Our delicious balsamic Panzanella salad is made with gluten free baguette, creamy dairy free cheese, and fresh tomatoes and basil for a colorful salad that’s packed with flavor. This is perfect for summer and is easy to make.

If you’re looking for a fresh and flavorful way to enjoy summer produce, this gluten free and dairy free Panzanella salad with sweet and tangy balsamic dressing is the perfect dish.

Panzanella is a classic Italian salad typically featuring stale bread that soaks up the delicious dressing to add a hearty twist on regular salad.

My allergy-friendly version keeps all the flavor while using gluten free baguette and dairy free Halloumi-style cheese, making it a perfect light meal for hot summer days.

Why we love this recipe

Our version of Panzanella salad is colorful and flavorful, and completely dairy free and gluten free, and can be vegan if made with egg free bread.

This is a great way to use up store-bought gluten free baguette or Italian bread that is on the dry or tough side. So if you have some dry gluten free bread you want to use up, give this a try!

How to make gluten free Panzanella salad

Here are the steps for making this salad recipe. The full recipe is at the end of the post, this is just an overview.

1. Tear your gluten free baguette into 1-inch pieces and set out to air dry a bit while you prepare the rest of the salad. A sturdy baguette or Italian bread works the best here.
2. Preheat a skillet over medium heat to cook the grilling cheese.
3. Cut the Violife grilling cheese into 1-inch squares and cook on each side in the preheated pan until each side is browned and the middle is soft. Set aside and allow to cool a bit while making the rest of the salad.
4. Wash and slice the cucumbers about 1/8-inch thick and add a large bowl.
5. Wash and cut the small tomatoes in half and add them to the bowl.
6. Slice the shallots OR red onion thin and add to the bowl. If you find these too strong, you can use chopped chives instead for a milder onion flavor.
7. Chiffonade your basil by washing it, rolling it, and thinly slicing it. Add to the bowl.
8. Whisk the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, adjusting the balsamic vinegar to taste depending on how tart yours is, and add to the bowl and toss to coat everything.
9. Add the bread pieces last and gently toss to coat again, making sure not to crush or break up the bread while stirring.
10. Serve immediately, topped with the dairy-free grilling cheese. You can always use a different cheese here if you can’t find the grilling cheese.
11. This would also be amazing with prosciutto on top!
12. I recommend eating this salad when you serve it since bread will get too soggy with any leftovers.

Notes on some of the salad ingredients

Here are a few notes on some of the ingredients we used in our Panzanella recipe.

Gluten free bread

This is a great way to use up gluten free bread that is on the dry side. Which is also nice because if the bread you use already tends to be dry, you don’t have to do much air drying or oven drying on the bread beforehand.

A sturdy baguette or Italian bread works well in this recipe, if you want to use a softer and more moist sandwich bread that’s cut into cubes, air dry it a bit longer before adding it to the salad so it doesn’t get soggy or fall apart.

Here are some options for gluten free and dairy free baguette:

• Kim & Jakes baguette (I like this brand, they are soft breads so may have to dry longer)
• Bfree demi baguettes (another good brand of bread)
• Trader Joe’s gluten free baguette (I haven’t tried the TJ gluten free breads so I’m not sure how they taste)
• Schar baguette (contains soy)
• Udi’s french baguette (contains eggs)

Dairy free cheese

We added some warm Violife grilling cheese to the top of the salad for some creaminess, but you can add your favorite dairy free cheese to the top of this salad.

Here are some ideas for some other dairy-free cheeses that would be great on top of our panzanella:

• Dairy free parmesan (we like Violife)
• Dairy free Violfe feta
• Plant based Laughing Cow garlic herb cheese (contains almonds)
• Plant based BabyBel cheese, cut into pieces
• Nuts for Cheese soft cashew cheeses

Cucumbers and tomatoes

For this salad, I used the mini English cucumbers since they aren’t as watery as larger cucumbers. If you use regular cucumbers, scoop out the insides with the seeds first and then chop into 1-inch pieces to help keep the salad from getting too wet.

I love cucumbers (they’re in almost every salad we post), but if you are not a fan of those, you can make a more traditional style Panzanella using only tomatoes and no cucumbers.

We used the Sunset wild wonders mini tomatoes since they had a lot of colors and shapes to add some visual appeal to the salad as well.

You can also use larger tomatoes instead of smaller ones if you have a bunch of fresh garden tomatoes you’d like to use. Just scrape out some of the watery seeds before cutting and adding to the salad to keep it from getting too watery.

Balsamic vinegar

I’m not sure if our choice of balsamic for the dressing is really “traditional”; some other recipes use red wine vinegar, and others use champagne vinegar. But I love the thick and sweet flavors of a high-quality Modena balsamic and thought it would be delicious in this salad. We use the organic version of the Fini Modena balsamic since it’s thick and sweet.

The amounts of vinegar are written for the thicker and sweeter balsamic, so if you use a cheaper balsamic vinegar that is more tart, or you decide to use red wine vinegar instead, you might have to adjust the amount of vinegar in the dressing.

Start by using 1 tablespoon of the vinegar in the dressing with the oil and seasonings and taste test it. If needed, add more vinegar, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you get the balance of tanginess you prefer.

Check out our other salad recipes!

• Creamy Dill Pickle Cucumber Salad
• Dairy Free Mexican Street Corn Salad
• Dairy Free Chopped Greek Salad
• Lemon Basil Chicken Salad

Pin for later!