Bruschetta Salad (high protein)

This easy and tasty chicken bruschetta salad is another high protein dish that uses all those ripe tomatoes from your summer garden. Crisp lettuce, sweet tomatoes, grilled chicken and a tangy balsamic vinaigrette topped with freshly grated cheese! And this big salad packs 54.9 grams of protein.

You might also like this easy keto chicken caprese recipe!

Come summer time we always have a huge amount of fresh tomatoes that I somehow have to find a way to use up. It’s a task I enjoy because they are delicious and I like to take advantage of all their fresh flavor.

Lately I’ve been make some of my older recipes like this bruschetta salad with grilled chicken. It’s a high protein dish that takes full of fresh flavor of veggies from our garden. The sweet ripe tomatoes, meaty chicken, crisp salad are dressed in a delicious tangy balsamic dressing and freshly grated cheese. It’s so delicious and fresh.

This recipe was originally inspired by my sister Patti’s bruschetta recipe which was awesome because she’s a great cook. This simple salad recipe has the flavor of Patti’s bruschetta bread appetizer but without the bread. While this is lower in carbs, it is high in protein with 54.9 grams of protein in the whole salad.

Recipe ingredients and substitutions.

The simple ingredients I used for this recipe is romaine lettuce, chopped cooked chicken breast, ripe tomatoes, red onions, fresh grated parmesan or asiago cheese and the balsamic vinaigrette. The dressing uses balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper, fresh garlic and some dried thyme.

• tomatoes – Fresh ripe tomatoes are the best option and they can be Roma tomatoes or a large heirloom variety. But you can also use grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. It’s hard to chop these but they would be fine.
• lettuce – Sometimes I use a mesclun mix of lettuces or like today I used chopped romaine. Just use your favorite type of lettuces and if you have some in the garden that would be great! I would not use ice berg unless you have nothing else. Baby spinach or arugula are great to mix in as well.
• parmesan or asiago cheese – I can always find a block of one of these cheeses at Aldi so these are my favorites to use in salads. A sharp cheddar would work too. You want a cheese that’s fresh and had a bite to it.
• grilled chicken – You can use any kind of cooked chicken you have on hand. If you have leftover chicken that’s fine, or rotisserie always tastes good with a salad.
• other salad ingredients – Today I use some fresh cucumber from our garden and I love the look of red onions. You can try some radishes, bell peppers, carrots, or whatever you usually use in a salad but you can also just use plain lettuce.
• balsamic dressing – I used regular balsamic vinegar but in the past I’ve used white balsamic. That is harder to find. I would recommend you use balsamic as that goes best with this dressing but if you are in a pinch red wine vinegar would work. I also use fresh garlic, a good olive oil and dried thyme.

TIP: You can also use salmon, tuna or shrimp on this salad if you want to switch up the protein. Also if you want to use fresh herbs you can add some fresh basil leaves, thyme, parsley or oregano. However basil would go the best with bruschetta flavors.

How to make bruschetta salad with chicken.

This salad is very simple to make.

1. First dice the tomatoes and sprinkle with the salt and black pepper.
2. Get out a salad bowl add your salad base ingredients. I used romaine, cucumbers and sliced red onions.
3. Next make the dressing by adding the 2 tablespoon of the tomato juices, vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic and thyme to a small bowl. Whisk together and then toss with the salad.
4. Next add the chopped chicken and then the diced tomatoes. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and serve. If you want to add fresh herbs, fresh basil would go great with the other flavors.

Note that this recipe makes one big salad but you can easily get 2 servings out of it. Or you can double everything if you are serving more people. I ate the whole thing for my dinner.

If you know you are going to have leftovers I would store them separately as the it will get soggy. This recipe makes one big salad.

Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card.

This recipe only takes about 5 minutes to make and it’s so fresh and delicious. You can serve with a nice piece of crusty bread (if you aren’t watching your carbs). I would use toasted bread to give more that bruschetta flavor. Or even try some croutons!

More easy fresh tomatoes recipes to try.

If you have a lot of tomatoes from your garden and don’t know what to make with them, try one of these deliciously easy recipes. I have a post with 22 fresh tomato recipes but these are my favorites.

• roasted zucchini and tomato soup or roasted tomato sauce
• easy tomato bacon jam or savory fresh toast
• fresh Bloody Mary for 1
• pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil

I think what I like most about this bruschetta salad is the dressing. I hope you get to try this recipe, especially if you are a salad lover like me. And again this is a big serving for 1 person, so you can easily serve two people.

The nutritional information for the whole salad is 415 calories / 24.9g fat / 21.1g carbs / 5g fiber / 54.9g protein = 16.1g net carbs