The Italian focaccia bread pairs well with soup or salad or can make it into a pizza! Many people even enjoy it as an appetizer or a full meal, depending on how much they make.

No matter how you eat it, focaccia doesn’t require much preparation and makes a delicious snack. Moreover, this recipe provides you a way to make it at home that you will find fun and easy.

So you can add whatever type of veggies you want and even create beautiful artwork with your ingredients!

Italian Focaccia Bread with Vegetables

make focaccia bread

You’ll never buy focaccia bread again!

What kitchen tools you need:

  • Medium-sized mixing bowl
  • Measuring cup
  • Mixing spoon
  • Another larger mixing bowl
  • Baking sheet or pan
  • Cutting board
  • Knife
  • Oven safe medium-sized deep pan
  • Saran wrap
  • Kitchen towel

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cup warm water
  • One package of active dry yeast
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Two tsp sea salt
  • Yellow bell pepper
  • Red bell pepper
  • Two white mushrooms
  • 1/2 a red onion
  • Four cherry tomatoes
  • A few sprigs of dill, parsley, and thyme
  • A couple of kalamata and green olives
  • A few slices of peeled zucchini
  • Minced garlic
  • Julienned carrot

How to make delicious focaccia bread right in your own kitchen

focaccia bread doughMaking this recipe is a family-friendly activity. So feel free to get the little ones involved.

Making the dough

  1. First, grab your smaller mixing bowl and pour in the warm water, yeast, and honey. Mix the ingredients fully, and let it sit for 5-15 minutes until it gets foamy.
  2. While that sits, get out the larger mixing bowl and pour in the all-purpose flour. Use your hands to push some to the sides, creating an area to pour the yeast in.
  3. Pour in the mixture from step 1, and add the olive oil and sea salt. Use a spoon to combine the ingredients until it creates a dough.
  4. Next, use your hands to scrape any flour off the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough into a small, flattened ball shape. Transfer to a cutting board or prep area.
  5. Next, sprinkle some flour on the surface, and knead the dough for about 5 mins. Once you’ve created a ball with the dough, grab the large mixing bowl and grease it with olive oil.
  6. Use your hands to spread it around, and place the dough on the bottom. Cover with saran wrap and let it rise for an hour.
  7. Once the dough has risen, get out the baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Spread the dough out evenly on the sheet and let rest for 30 mins. Cover with a kitchen towel.
  8. Now, repeat this process with about half the ingredients you used for the first batch of bread. Spread out the dough in the medium-sized deep pan, and set aside.

Preparing toppings for the focaccia bread

  1. You can choose whatever veggies you’d like. But we’ll give you some examples with this recipe.
  2. Grab your cutting board and a sharp knife, cutting the yellow bell pepper width-wise. In other words, you should be cutting it horizontally, so the slices resemble flowers.
  3. Slice a couple white mushrooms and half a red onion.
  4. Repeat the process with red bell pepper and four cherry tomatoes, cutting the tomatoes in half.
  5. Peel a small zucchini, cutting the shavings into skinny slices. Repeat this with a long carrot.
  6. Grab a few sprigs of fresh dill, parsley, and thyme. Next, mince a garlic clove to use as a topping for the bread.
  7. When the dough is ready, drizzle it with olive oil. Lay a few of the zucchini slices sideways toward the bottom.
  8. Place 4-5 mushroom slices above the zucchini, and lay parsley between the mushrooms. Make sure to leave the stems on them.
  9. Now, put a few red and yellow bell pepper slices near the parsley.
  10. Put a small handful of julienned carrots between the mushrooms and above the zucchini.
  11. Cut a couple of green olives in half, and put the halves in the middle of the bell pepper slices.
  12. Sprinkle dill on the bottom of the dough next to the mushrooms. Remove the stems this time.
  13. Place a few thyme leaves and red onion slices at the top.
  14. Put kalamata olives in the middle of the red onions.
  15. Sprinkle some minced garlic on top of the focaccia bread, and drizzle with olive oil.

  16. Bake the focaccia bread at 400 degrees F for 20-30 mins.

  17. Now, grab the dough that’s in the smaller pan. Make small indentations and drizzle with olive oil.
  18. Place a few thyme leaves on the dough. Place bell pepper on top of one of them.
  19. Line one of the leaves with the cherry tomato halves, placing mushrooms at the bottom.
  20. Also, place some dill and parsley leaves near the bottom of the pan surrounding the mushrooms.
  21. Create a butterfly using a couple of thin slices of mushrooms, red bell pepper, and carrots. To do this, place the mushrooms in the middle vertically, then lay the bell pepper slices on either side. You’ll want to use the bottom part of red bell pepper for this. Then, put a couple of julienned carrots at the top for the antennae.
  22. Finally, sprinkle with minced garlic and olive oil, and bake for 20-30 mins at 400F.
  23. Cut your beautiful masterpiece into squares.

focaccia breadFinal thoughts: You’ll never want to buy store-bought bread after making this focaccia

There’s just something about homemade food that makes it taste better than restaurant meals. Whether it’s the love you put into it or the fresh ingredients, there’s nothing like your own cooking. Fortunately, this focaccia bread recipe is easy to make and versatile. Thus, you can pick whatever toppings you’d like.

Some other delicious ingredients include shredded cheese, pine nuts, pesto, sesame seeds, and caramelized onions. There are dozens more you can choose from, so feel free to try out an array of healthy vegetables. In fact, once you try this focaccia bread even once, we guarantee you’ll want seconds!