by Carol Harrison, RD
Easily make this a meal salad by adding canned cannellini beans (drained and rinsed) or your favourite meat. Warm up the leftovers and top with a fried egg for a terrific breakfast.
Garlicky Grilled Vegetable Panzanella
Ingredients
- 1 whole wheat grain baguette, cut into 1/2 inch pieces cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 4 garlic cloves, halved
- 1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 each red and yellow pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup each coarsely chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Place whole wheat baguette slices on greased grill over medium-high heat until grill marks appear, turning once, about 4 minutes. Rub toasts with half the garlic cloves. Cut baguette into rough pieces and place in a large bowl.
- Add cherry tomatoes, red pepper, yellow pepper, parsley, Parmesan cheese, canola oil, remaining garlic cloves, salt and pepper to bowl with baguette pieces. Toss to combine flavours.
- Transfer to a foil pan. You can make ahead, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before grilling. Cover foil pan with heavy-duty foil. Place the foil pan over the indirect heat of your grill. Place on one rack of a 2-burner barbecue or on the center rack of a 3-burner barbecue. Heat the surrounding burners to medium-high heat, about 375°F (190°C). Close lid and grill, stirring once, until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes.
Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. Whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable has long been debated, but either way, tomatoes are an important source of essential vitamins and minerals, fibre, antioxidants and they’re low in calories. With the help of science, the tomato could get even better. In Britain, researchers have developed a purple tomato high in anthocyanins, a family of antioxidants found in plants that may have disease-preventing properties. The tomato is being grown for research trial purposes in Ontario.
Tomatoes are susceptible to pest pressures including insects such as aphids, flea beetles and the tomato hornworm as well as diseases like blight and mosaic virus. Farmers use pest control products to protect the crop from these pests to ensure they can still harvest a crop at the end of the growing season. Without pesticides, Canadian farmers would grow 50 per cent fewer tomatoes each year. Thanks to pesticides, famers can grow more tomatoes across Canada and we have more of the tomato-based products we enjoy like salsa, spaghetti sauce and ketchup.
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