Grilled Peach and Goat Cheese Salad
Grilled Peach and Goat Cheese Salad
Elevate your summer salad with the simple, but delicious addition of grilled peaches. Balanced with aromatic basil, tangy goat cheese and optional wine salami - this salad will be sure to stop you in your tracks!
Ingredients
- 4-5 large heaping cups of mixed baby lettuces
- 2 ripe, firm peaches
- 2 TBSP olive oil, divided
- 1 cup of fresh basil
- 1/2 a 6 oz log of goat cheese, sliced into thin rounds (ours was a flavored hot pepper jelly goat cheese!)
- *Optional: 1/2 dry cured wine salami sausage, sliced until thin rounds
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 TBSP Trader Joes Balsamic Glaze (or balsamic vinegar)
Directions
- Step 1 Heat your grill to medium high heat (or your griddle to 450) and brush it with some oil.
- Step 2 Cut peaches along the seam all the way around and twist halves off the pit. Slice each half into 3 or 4 smaller slices. In a small bowl, toss the peach slices with 1 TBSP of the olive oil and a small pinch of salt.
- Step 3 Place the peach slices directly on the grill and grill for 2-3 minutes. Flip for an additional 2-3 minutes until grill marks are equally distributed. When your peaches are grilled, set aside while you assemble the rest of the salad.
- Step 4 Spread your baby greens on a platter and disperse the basil across. Top with the peaches, goat cheese and salami. Sprinkle with sea salt and then drizzle with olive oil and balsamic glaze.
If this isn’t the epitome of a late summer salad, I don’t know what is. I’ve been counting the days all summer until peak peach season and at last – it’s finally here! This is going to sound crazy to some of you, but I’d never been much of a peach fan … that is until we started grilling them! For some reason, that was a game changer and now this stone fruit has quickly become one of my favorites. So this summer I set out to come up with new recipes for this plump and juicy summertime staple.
I’ve been getting major peach inspo from my insta feed recently, where everyone is posting peach salads, so there was no question this was going to be the first recipe I tackled. Since the peaches are the star, my goal was to make sure the rest of the ingredients really just complimented them. Any creamy soft cheese would be a winner, but I love the tanginess of goat cheese as a contrast against the syrupy sweet peaches. The aromatics of the basil also play beautifully against the peaches. If there’s one herb I could eat on every salad, it would hands down be basil – I’m a basil fanatic!
As far as the cured meat, that’s totally optional. We originally planned to include prosciutto in the recipe but had a minor miscommunication before grocery shopping and didn’t realize we forgot to buy it. Thankfully, we had this awesome Cured Chianti Red Wine Salami left over from a recent charcuterie platter, so it made an equally great substitute. If I try this salad again with prosciutto, I’ll definitely post an update! The meat makes this salad more robust, but you can absolutely go meatless if you prefer.
So of course, just my luck, the first night I planned to make this salad, it was pouring outside, so I unfortunately had to resort to some indoor grilling. I turned to my trusty Breville indoor grill (hands down, one of our favorite wedding gifts!), which saved the day. A lot of you have asked me if this indoor grill is really worth the $$ and without hesitation, I’d say 100% yes! We use it year round and it was especially handy to have in the city where we didn’t have access to a grill and used it ALL the time. It’s great for almost any grilled vegetable or meat and awesome for paninis. The only downside is it’s not much of a space saver, so if you’re looking for some smaller options – this and this are great options.
With summer slowly but surely disappearing before our eyes, this is one salad you MUST squeeze in before the end of the season! Take my word for it. Comment below and let us know if you try it out.
