Greek Bread Salad with Toasted Pita Chips ♥ A Kid-Friendly Recipe

Today's vegetable salad recipe: A whole pile of vegetable color and crunch, interspersed with crisp homemade toasted pita chips. Kids like this! Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point.

My friend Ann put out a stunning array of food for our book club last month. But it was the salad — oh, the colorful salad! — that caught my attention first. "My kids devour this salad," she said. Really? A salad with so many vegetables and kids gobble it down?

Turns out, the trick is the Toasted Pita Chips. Now I may be a grown-up but here, I'm with the kids. The pita chips really do add something special: without them, this salad would be just some chopped vegetables tossed in Greek salad dressing. If you like Panzanella, the Italian bread salad, you'll love this one too.

(Speaking of book clubs, have you seen my reading group's book list? We've been reading together since 1994!)

GREEK BREAD SALAD with TOASTED PITA CHIPS

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 20 minutes
Makes 8 cups (easily halved)

TOASTED PITA CHIPS
2 large pitas

SALAD
2 carrots, peeled and chopped small
4 ribs celery, trimmed and chopped small
1 red pepper, cored and chopped small
1 orange or yellow pepper, cored and chopped small
3 green onions, white and green parts both, chopped
1/2 an English cucumber, chopped small
Homemade Greek Salad Dressing or commercial Greek salad dressing

TOASTED PITA CHIPS Set the oven to 350F. Cut the pitas into squares, separating the two sides. Drop onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes until crisp, tossing after 10 minutes and every 5 minutes until done. Can be made in advance, they stay crisp!

SALAD Chop and combine the vegetables in a large bowl. Can be done in advance.

TO SERVE Just before serving, toss with Greek salad dressing. Stir in the Toasted Pita Chips and serve.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Half Cup made with commercial dressing: 54 Calories; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 1mg Cholesterol; 102mg Sodium; 8g Carb; 1g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 1g Protein; Weight Watchers 1 point

Per Half Cup made with Homemade Greek Salad Dressing: 43 Calories; 1g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 1mg Cholesterol; 115mg Sodium; 8g Carb; 1g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 2g Protein; Weight Watchers 1 point

KITCHEN NOTES
For convenience, Ann uses a commercial salad dressing. If I were doing this, I'd thin it a bit with a little milk so it wouldn't be so thick and gloppy and would go further.
The first time I made this salad, I toasted some flat bread that was on hand. NOT as good! (Didn't I say the pita chips are special?) Now that I know how good the pita chips taste, next time I'll bake extra to keep on hand for adding to other salads, just a few at a time.
The proportion of celery in this salad seems important to the overall 'crunch' of this salad. When I used just two ribs of celery, it wasn't enough.

This recipe is so quick and easy that I'm adding it to a growing collection of easy summer recipes published all summer long in 2009 at Kitchen Parade, my food column, and now again in 2010. With a free Kitchen Parade e-mail subscription, you'll never miss a one!

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MORE FAVORITE VEGETABLE SALAD RECIPES
~ Summer Orzo with Radicchio ~
~ Cowboy Coleslaw ~
~ Fresh Green Bean Salad with Asian Dressing ~

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