Our Warm Mushroom and Roasted Fennel Arugula Bread Salad is perfect when wild mushrooms are in season, bringing a unique, earthy taste to your table. It's our twist on the classic panzanella, where we swap out the traditional tomatoes and cucumbers for wild mushrooms and fennel. It’s a perfect make ahead salad, as the longer it sits the more the flavors blend together.
I'll guide you through the essential steps of cleaning and cooking these delightful fungi, ensuring you get the best flavors and textures. Toss together the warm mushrooms, the duo of roasted and crunchy raw fennel with peppery arugula (I like adding other mixed greens too!), toasted bread cubes and creamy chèvre goat cheese. We will dress the salad with a zesty Dijon vinaigrette and garnish with chives. This salad is a harmonious blend of freshness and warmth that makes a hearty side dish or main event.
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Pam's Best Tips
A twist on a classic Italian side dish, this recipe for Warm Mushroom Panzanella Salad uses oven-baked croutons (which you can make up to 2 days ahead) instead of stale bread.
Making your own croutons achieves the perfect “crunchewy” of oven crispiness and enough softness when it has soaked into the dressing. Of course, you can use store-bought croutons – but you will need to plan more time for the dressing to soak into the bread.
Another tip is to add the warm mushrooms to the fennel and goat cheese as they will melt the goat cheese making the dressing creamy. I add a can of cannellini beans to bring protein to this salad – remembering to rinse the beans first to remove their tinny flavor.
Tossing everything together and letting it sit for at least 30 minutes before serving allows the flavors of this recipe to blend nicely.
How to clean wild mushrooms
Cleaning wild mushrooms may seem like a daunting task, but with some tips you'll be ready to confidently prep these forest treasures.
- Rinse Just Before Cooking: If you’re going to use water to rinse your mushrooms, do so directly before cooking. Many species will have a shorter shelf life if they’re rinsed before storage, especially if they’re not allowed to dry properly before being put away.
- Trimming: Use your best judgment to discard any sections of mushroom that are discolored, soft to the touch, or otherwise suspect. Cut well around the affected area and never eat anything you’re unsure of!
- Scraping: Some mushrooms can get dirt or grit embedded in their flesh, which can be extremely difficult to brush off. An alternative to rinsing is to scrape the mushroom with a paring knife to remove the first layer of flesh, especially when the dirt is just embedded into the stem.
- Salad Spinner: If you're in a hurry or just want to speed up the drying process, many mushrooms can be tossed in a salad spinner to give them a quick dry. Be careful with more fragile mushrooms, but hearty species like morels don't mind a quick spin.
By following these steps, you'll ensure your wild mushrooms are clean and ready to enhance your Warm Mushroom and Roasted Fennel Arugula Bread Salad with their unique, earthy flavors.
What you'll need
This salad is perfect when wild mushrooms are in season, bringing a unique, earthy taste to your table. It's our twist on the classic panzanella (bread salad), where we swap in wild mushrooms and fennel.
- Fresh hearty bread like ciabatta or sourdough. Short on time? Use store-bought croutons.
- Wild mushrooms – any combination like chestnuts, trumpet, baby bella, portabella, lions main, black pearl, oyster, and black popular.
- Salad Greens – any combination of arugula, frisee and spinach.
- Cannellini beans (canned) or another white kidney bean like great northern, navy beans or pinto beans.
- Fennel bulb and fronds – we will slice the fennel bulb thinly, but be sure to keep some of the green, feather-like fronds on top of the fennel bulb to add a fresh, subtle licorice-y flavor as a garnish.
- Fresh herbs – garlic, parsley, oregano or thyme
- Chevre or Goat Cheese – I opt for one of my favorite famer’s market finds, a sheep’s milk cheese called Shepherd's Hope it’s a unique mild, fresh cheese with a gentle citrus note at the finish. Use any variety of chevre, goat or sheep’s milk cheese for this salad.
For the Vinaigrette
- Sweet light vinegar – like a rice vinegar, white wine or champagne vinegar
- Dijon mustard and whole grain mustard
- Honey
- Olive Oil
- Fresh Chives
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Red pepper flakes
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Warm Mushroom and Roasted Fennel Arugula Salad
Once your mushrooms are prepped and ready, let's dive into the step-by-step instructions to create this delicious Warm Mushroom and Roasted Fennel Arugula Bread Salad!
- Step 1: Toss fresh bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet with some oil and sprinkle with salt. We are going to bake them in a preheated oven until they are dried out and pale golden brown at the edges. Let them cool on a wire rack.
- Step 2: While the bread cubes are toasting, toss the mushrooms and half of the thinly sliced fennel with salt and olive oil and spread them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Set along-side the bread cubes baking sheet in the oven and roast, turning them halfway through, until lightly golden and cooked through.
- Step 3. Transfer the remaining raw fennel to a large bowl. Mix garlic, rice vinegar, thyme, fennel fronds with the fennel. Season with a pinch of salt and red-pepper flakes. Make sure to coat the fennel and set aside.
Assembling the salad
Now let’s make the vinaigrette, Combine vinegar, honey, the mustards along with a pinch of salt and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper. While, whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the mixture begins to thicken.
Once the mushrooms and fennel are golden brown, add them to the raw fennel mixture along with some parsley and the goat cheese. Toss well.
Add bread cubes and beans, mixing in the Dijon vinaigrette. Let the salad sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours before serving.
Let the salad sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours before serving. When ready to serve, add greens, toss with a bit more olive oil, vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Enjoy!
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Make ahead
This salad benefits from being made ahead. Tossing everything together and letting it sit for at least 30 minutes before serving allows the flavors of this recipe to blend together nicely.
This recipe for Warm Mushroom Panzanella Salad uses oven-baked croutons (which you can make up to 2 days ahead) instead of stale bread. Making your own croutons achieves the perfect “crunchewy” of oven crispiness and enough softness as it soaks into the dressing. Of course, you can use store-bought croutons – but you will need to plan more time for the dressing to soak into the bread.
Common questions about this recipe
You've got questions... I've got answers! If you have a question about this recipe that isn't answered below, feel free to leave it in the comments, and I'll jump in there to help you out.
Here's the catch, and it’s a big one – the vast majority (99%) of edible wild mushrooms should not be eaten raw. The Forger Chef, has a great article on this great debate and discusses which edible wild mushrooms are toxic raw.
I know, I know in America we all see the sliced, raw button mushrooms sitting next to the black olives and yellow banana peppers on a salad plate. But, those raw, often sad white mushrooms are different from wild mushrooms. That being, edible wild mushrooms vary in species, shapes, sizes, aromas and even toxic properties.
So, my recommendation, and often the recommendation of North Woods Mushrooms at the Mill City Farmers market is to cook those edible mushrooms – this makes them safe since exposure to high, prolonged heat (or par-blanching), denatures the problematic toxic componds.
Related
Looking for more salad recipes for two? Try these:
- Ground Turkey and Barley Stuffed Peppers
- Hot Honey Winter Squash and Chickpeas (gluten-free)
- Wild rice spinach salad with cranberries and mandarin oranges
- Maple Roasted Carrots, Salted Pepitas and White Bean Purée
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with warm mushroom and roasted fennel arugula bread salad are soups. Here are some of my go-to small batch soups:
Warm Mushroom and Roasted Fennel Arugula Bread Salad Recipe
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Ingredients
- 4 ounces ciabatta or baguette cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 12 ounces wild mushrooms- any combination of like trumpet baby bella, , portabella, lions main, black pearl, oyster, black popular, and chestnuts, rinsed and sliced into ¼ inch slices.
- 1 small fennel bulbs thinly sliced on a mandolin, plus 1 tablespoons chopped fronds
- 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar champagne or white wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove minced
- ½ Tablespoon fresh thyme chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Ground black pepper
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 Tablespoon parsley chopped
- 2 ounces goat cheese plain or goat and herb.
- 7 ounces can cannellini beans (half of a 15 ounce can), great northern beans or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 ounces any combination of argula friscee or spinach salad greens, about 1 cup per serving.
- 2 Tablespoons fresh chives minced
Dijon Vinaigrette:
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 425 degrees. Toss bread cubes with 2 Tablespoons olive oil on rimmed baking sheet. Spread bread cubes on pan and bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, shaking pan halfway through to prevent bread from sticking. Remove from oven and cool completely. (Bread cubes can be stored in zipper-lock bag for one or two days.)
- While toasting the bread cubes, toss the mushrooms, half of the fennel with ½ teaspoon salt and the remaining ⅛ cup oil and spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Set along-side bread cubes baking sheet in the oven to roast for 15 minutes, turning halfway through, until lightly golden and cooked through.
- Transfer the remaining raw fennel to a large bowl. Add garlic, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, oregano or thyme, fennel fonds, ¼ teaspoon salt and the red-pepper flakes if using. Toss to coat and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar, honey, the mustards, pinch of salt and some black pepper to taste. While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil until the mixture is thickened.
- Add warm mushrooms and fennel, parsley and goat cheese to the raw fennel mixture and toss well. The warm mushrooms will melt the goat cheese making a creamy dressing. Now, add bread cubes and beans. Toss the salad with the Dijon vinaigrette. Let sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours before serving. When ready to serve, add arugula, greens and chives. Toss with a little more olive oil, vinegar and salt, if needed.
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Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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