Spring Fruit makes Fantastic salad Combinations!

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It’s so exciting when I can pick fresh fruit right off of my own tree in my backyard. It doesn’t happen often as I only have 5 dwarf fruit trees and most of them only bear fruit every other year. However, my white peach tree gives me a very early harvest each year of whatever I can protect from the squirrels and birds!

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With my abundance of  picturesque baby lettuces that I receive from my Talley Farms CSA box, a salad inspiration was born. I paired my juicy fresh peaches with my Talley Farms greens and blueberries to create an unusual, delightful salad. I added some French feta cheese crumbles and used my favorite vinaigrette ingredients to finish the salad.

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To make the peaches more interesting, I grilled them. I cut them in half, removed the pits and basted them with some of my vinaigrette dressing. I grilled them in my panini press which turned out to be the perfect process to get them lightly toasted and flavorful. My peaches are quite juicy and delicate so grilling them on the barbecue would most likely have been a disaster. This way, I could get nice grill marks and ensure that I would not lose my fruit between the grates!

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To go along with my salad, I decided to use my panini press again and grilled halved steamed artichokes. I served them with a dipping sauce made from a mixture of mayonnaise, soy sauce, dijon mustard and a chopped preserved lemon. It was a nice accompaniment to my fruit based salad.

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GRILLED PEACH AND BLUEBERRY SALAD

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 4 medium size peaches (or 2 large)
  • 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
  • 4 cups baby lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces
  • 2 tablespoons peach balsamic vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • kosher salt & freshly ground pepper 

Directions

  1. Make vinaigrette. Add vinegar, honey & olive oil to a tightly covered glass jar and shake until emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  2. Cut peaches in half and remove their pits. Brush some of the vinaigrette on both sides of the peaches. Heat a panini press and lay the peaches on it, cut side down. Lightly press it closed ensuring that you do not smash the peaches and remove all of their juice. Grill until you get nice grill marks and then turn if needed to achieve light grill marks on the other side. (This may not be necessary depending on how firm your peaches are. Mine were quite delicate so it was necessary to turn them instead of pressing hard)
  3. Put the lettuce leaves in a bowl and toss with enough vinaigrette to coat, but not wilt the lettuce. Plate the dressed lettuce on two dinner size plates. Garnish each salad with 1/2 of the feta cheese and blueberries. Lay the peach halves on top of the salad and serve immediately.

Note

  • Feel free to be creative and use other substitutions you might have on hand.

(Printable recipe can be found in my recipe index under Salads)

 

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