Leftover French Toast? Make French Toast Croutons for this Fruit Panzanella Salad!

A couple weeks ago I made a batch of my Caramelized French Toast ("The French Toast That East Like Crème Brûlée"™). My recipe is a pan-fried version of the dish inspired by the excellent baked recipe in Debe Perelman's second book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers. Whenever I'm testing recipes, I wind up with more leftovers than I know what to do with. What I found was that after cooling to room temperature, the crisply caramelized crust became even crisper. I cut a slice into bite-sized nuggets, thinking that they'd make a great after-school snack for my kiddos (they did).

My Production Manager Lena and I were sitting in the kithcen poppin' nug when she suggested that they'd make excellent croutons for a fruit salad, which sounded like a genius move. So the next day I made a batch.

I started with my Well-Dressed Fruit Salad recipe, which combines ripe fruit with a very light dressing of yogurt flavored with honey, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla extract. This time around, I also added a good glug of extra-virgin olive oil (my current favorite is Primis, from Greece) and replaced the lemon zest and juice with tangerine, as that's what I had on-hand.

The secret to my Serious Eats Panzenella Salad recipe was to salt the vegetables and let them rest for a spell to extract their juices, then use that juice to form a vinaigrette that would soak into the bread. I decided to use a similar approach to this salad, tossing the fruit with a bit of sugar to draw out juices which would end up mixing with the dressing and soaking into the French Toast croutons.

I finished it off with a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of honey, and a scattering of mint leaves.

I'm generally not a sweet breakfast person (literally and figuratively), but this is one fruity breakfast I can see myself getting behind regularly, especially given we frequently end up with a few spare slices of French toast on French toast mornings. French toast is a dish made from leftover bread. French toast crouton salad is made from leftover French toast.

So what do I make if I don't finish this one?

Fruit Panzanella Salad with Leftover French Toast Croutons, Yogurt, Vanilla, and Olive Oil

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I like about this recipe:

• Leftover french toast is re-purposed into a flavorful salad.

• A light dressing of yogurt, olive oil, and citrus enhances and complements the natural flavors of the fruit.

• The stale french toast soaks up juices exuded by the fruit.

Yield: Servers 2-4

Active Time: 7 minutes

Total Time: 7 minutes

Notes: Use any mix of fresh fruit available to you. You can substitute any citrus for the tangerine (such as lemon or lime), and any herb that sounds appealing for the mint (such as tarragon, thyme, or basil).

Ingredients:

For the Salad:

1 quart of chopped fresh seasonal fruit (such as berries, stone fruit, mangoes, frapes, etc)

2 teaspoons granulated white sugar

2 slices leftover French toast (such as my Caramelized French Toast)

A few mint leaves, torn into tiny bits with your fingertips (optional)

For the Dressing:

1 tablespoon (15ml) yogurt (plus more for the plate)

1 tablespoons (15ml) Extra-virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling)

1 teaspoon (5ml) honey (plus more for drizzling)

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

The zest of half a tangerine, and about a 2 teaspoons (10ml) of its juice

Steps:

1. For the Salad: Toss the fruit with the sugar in a large bowl and let rest until some juices start to collect in the bottom, about 5 minutes. Add the croutons and torn herbs.

2. For the Dressing: While the fruit macerates, combine the yogurt, olive oil, honey, vanilla, zest, and juice in a small bowl and stir together to combine.

3. Add the dressing to the salad and toss to combine.

4. Spoon some yogurt onto a serving platter and spread it around with the back of the spoon. Drizzle the yogurt with some extra-virgin olive oil. Pile the fruits salad on top and drizzle with a little extra honey. Serve immediately.