Sourdough Bread Salad with Tomato Water Dressing

Sourdough bread salad is what we make when there’s half a loaf left and the tomatoes are at their best. The bread gets torn and toasted rather than soaked, and the dressing is built on the water the salted tomatoes release — salt, acid and savoury depth in one, straight from the vegetables. It takes an hour, mostly unattended, and it’s the salad we bring out alongside anything off the grill.

Sourdough Bread Salad with Tomato Water Dressing

A Nordic take on bread salad — crisp sourdough croutons, ripe summer tomatoes and peppers, and a dressing built on the tomato water itself.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Draining 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings (as a side)

Course: Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine: Nordic, Scandinavian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Bread

• 300 g day-old sourdough bread about ½ loaf, or 6 cups torn into 1¼ inch pieces
• 2 tbsp neutral oil

Vegetables

• 500 g mixed ripe tomatoes about 1 lb — cherry, green and yellow varieties
• 3 sweet pointed peppers in different colours; bell peppers work too
• 1 tsp fine sea salt

Tomato Water Dressing

• 120 ml reserved tomato and pepper water ½ cup — whatever the vegetables release
• 1 shallot very finely chopped
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard heaping
• 2 tpsp white wine vinegar
• 100 ml neutral oil or olive oil scant ½ cup
• ¼ lemon, zested
• black pepper to taste

Equipment

• Rimmed baking sheet Croutons need room to toast rather than steam
• Fine-mesh sieve For draining the salted vegetables and catching every drop of tomato water
• Balloon whisk Emulsifies the dressing properly
• Microplane zester Fine lemon zest without any of the bitter pith
• Serrated bread knife Firm day-old crusts need a blade, not pressure

Method

 

Bread

1. Heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F. Cut or tear the sourdough into rough 3 cm / 1¼ inch pieces — uneven edges catch the dressing better than neat cubes.
2. Toss the bread with the oil until lightly coated and spread it on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden and crisp outside but still with a little give in the middle. Leave to cool completely.

Vegetables

1. Cut the tomatoes and peppers into generous bite-sized pieces — this salad wants chunks, not dice. Season with the salt and toss.
2. Tip everything into a sieve set over a bowl and leave for 30 minutes. The salt draws out a surprising amount of liquid, and that liquid is the whole point.

Dressing

1. Measure the collected tomato and pepper water into a bowl. Whisk in the shallot, Dijon and vinegar.
2. Whisking constantly, add the oil in a slow stream until the dressing thickens and holds together. Grate in the lemon zest and season with black pepper — but taste before adding any salt.

Assembly

1. Combine the drained vegetables and the cooled croutons in a wide serving dish. Pour over the dressing and toss gently.
2. Let the salad sit for 5 minutes before serving, so the bread takes on some dressing while keeping its crunch.

Notes

Chef’s tip — the salt does two jobs. Salting the tomatoes and peppers seasons them, and the liquid they release becomes the base of the dressing. That water carries salt, acidity and a savoury depth you can’t get from a bottle, which is why there’s no added salt in the dressing. Taste before you reach for the salt cellar — most of the time it doesn’t need any.

The lemon zest is not optional. A quarter of a lemon sounds like nothing, but it’s what lifts the whole dish from pleasant to bright. Add it at the end, and never earlier.

On timing. Dress the salad 5 minutes before it goes on the table. Longer and the croutons soften; shorter and they haven’t taken on any flavour.

Use ripe green tomatoes, such as Green Zebra — a green variety that is fully ripe, not an unripe red one.

Bread matters. Day-old whole grain sourdough is ideal: sturdy enough to hold up, open enough to soak. Fresh bread turns to paste.

What makes this different from panzanella

Italian panzanella soaks stale bread in water and tomato juice until it’s soft, then dresses it. We do the opposite: the bread goes into a hot oven with a little oil until it’s properly crisp, and it stays crisp right through to the table. The dressing does the softening, and only just.

The other difference is the dressing itself. Salt the tomatoes and peppers, leave them in a sieve for half an hour, and you’re left with a bowl of intensely savoury liquid that most people pour down the drain. Whisked with shallot, Dijon and vinegar, then emulsified with oil, it makes a dressing that tastes of the vegetables it came from — and needs no added salt at all.

Getting the croutons right

Tear rather than cut where you can. Ragged edges give you more surface to crisp and more places for the dressing to catch.

Fifteen minutes at 180°C / 350°F is enough for day-old bread. You want golden and crisp outside with a little chew left in the centre — croutons dried all the way through turn to gravel once dressed. Let them cool completely before they meet the vegetables; warm bread goes soft immediately.

Make it your own

Herbs: dill or chives suit the Nordic side of this; basil pushes it back towards Italy.
Cucumber in place of some of the tomato, salted the same way, for a lighter summer version.
A soft-boiled egg or a few anchovies turn it from a side into lunch.
Rye sourdough gives darker, denser croutons and a deeper flavour — good with fish.

What we serve it with

This is a grill salad first and foremost. It sits well next to lamb, chicken or anything charred, and it’s very good with a piece of baked white fish. It also holds up better than a leafy salad on a table outdoors.

It’s also excellent with cured ham. At home we use Norwegian spekeskinke, cured for three to nine months rather than the year or more Italian prosciutto often gets — so it stays moister and less dry, and it’s usually sliced with less fat on it. Leaner and a little softer against the acidity of the dressing. Prosciutto or serrano work well too, but keep those sliced thin; they’re drier, and thicker slices turn chewy.

More ways to use leftover sourdough

This salad is part of our guide to what to do with leftover sourdough bread — reviving a stale loaf, bread chips, breadcrumbs and more.