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This summer-inspired sweet peach & tarragon salad recipe is an absolute must! It’s filled with an array of healthy ingredients bursting with antioxidants while being the perfect pairing to grilled meats and it’s smoky counterparts! With peach season coming to a close, this is the ideal peach salad recipe to enjoy those last-minute harvests. While you may be frantically searching “peach salad ideas or grilled peach recipes,” I can assure you the searching will stop here! This summer peach salad is THAT good.
Aside from the above, I’ve included options to make this simple peach salad more versatile. This includes the use of both sweet potatoes as well as carrots. This allows for both dietary versatility as well as for seasonal versatility when peaches may not be in season! This can be eaten as a fresh peach salad or a grilled peach salad depending on how you would like to prepare and enjoy it! For the carrot and sweet potato option I have provided notes on how to use an air-fryer to achieve a crunchy exterior.
How To Prepare This Summer Stone Fruit Salad
Picking the perfect peach: This is important! The goal is to pick the perfect salad peach that’s just hard enough to remain fresh, but soft enough for it’s sugars to steal the show! This means planning out your peach salad in alignment with it’s freshness. Peaches will turn quite quickly so plan accordingly!
Prepare your produce & dressing: After washing your produce peel your carrots for this recipe and set aside. Next, set out your peaches to dry slightly and prepare your dressing. To do so, remove the leaves from the stalk of each herb and adding it to your immersion blender cup. Follow with your other dressing ingredients & blend until incorporated. Next, slice and peel your produce as noted below.
To Grill or Not To Grill: Either way, we’ll still be grilling since halloumi is a grilling cheese! Whether you’d like this peach salad to be a grilled one or a sliced peach salad, both will be delicious! If grilling, we’re simply looking for a bit of color from the grill which means the first step is important when picking a peach! For our halloumi, you may either grill it or pan-sear the cheese.
Plating Peach Perfection: Presenation is everything! Plating truly makes food taste better in my opinion and that’s certainly the truth when it comes to this peach salad!
What goes with peach salad?
This is a great question to ask! I find it’s often confusing for people to pair savory items with sweet fruits such as a peach. Peaches or most stone fruits are a more versatile fruits to pair with an array of savory dishes such as meats. When we think about how a piece of red meat is seasoned for stewing it’s often rich and bold flavors. Utilizing spices such as garlic, rosemary, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and more, a peach would be what provides the need for sweetness in a recipe like this instead of adding something like white sugar.
Peaches are known to pair well with flavors such as ginger, tarragon, lemon, mint, and basil. In this recipe we are pairing it with an assortment of ingredients, many of which are noted above.
When thinking about what to pair with this peach salad, let individual items be your guide. To do this, season a singular piece of meat with similar flavors to the salad. Use the dressing as a marinade or utilize garlic & aleppo honey blend as a seasoning for your grilled items! This is a great starting point. Items that I love to pair with this peach recipe are grilled steaks seasoned simply with garlic, salt, & pepper. For seafood pairings for this peach salad, I enjoy very crispy grilled shrimp or salmon doused in honey & paprika! You can find my easy smoky salmon recipe here!
Many salads featuring fresh peaches will be peach prosciutto salads or ones made with crispy speck. Both of these speciality meats are a great option to pair with this dish if you enjoy pork products. I recommend toasting both the prosciutto and/or the speck as it provides an amazing “crunch” to the salad when toasted. If you prefer to keep this peach salad simple with minimal cooking, feel free to add the meat as-is.
Additionally, simple ingredients such as quinoa, sorghum, croutons, nuts, and seeds are all items that will provide great crunch and texture while marrying well with the existing flavors!
Sweet Peach and Tarragon Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Low Histamine Sweet Tarragon Dressing
- 1 container tarragon (.5oz container)
- 1/2 container basil (.5oz container)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp honey I like tupelo honey
- 1 tbsp Dee's low histamine mustard (linked below) (You may use regular dijon if you do not have a vinegar allergy!)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon
- Freshly cracked pepper
Sweet Peach and Tarragon Salad Ingredients:
- 4 large rainbow carrots
- 5 large peaches
- 1-2 hass avocados
- 1 block grilled halloumi cheese or vegan "grilling" cheese
- 1 tsp honey aleppo pepper blend (linked above!)
- 1/4-1/1 tsp maldon salt
- 1 tbsp avocado oil (for pan searing the halloumi)
Sweet Potato & Carrot Alternative Ingredients:
- 1/2 tsp salt for boiling
- Water to cover
- 1 tbsp arrowroot flour or organic cornstarch
- 1 tbsp avocado oil or coconut oil
- 1/4-1/2 tsp garlic granules
- 1/4-1/2 tsp salt for toasting
Instructions
Low Histamine Sweet Tarragon Dressing Instructions:
- Start by peeling the tarragon and basil leaves away from it's stalk. Place all leaves into your immersion blender jar and follow with the rest of your ingredients.
- Turn on your immersion blender and blend until fully incorporated. Reserve until you're ready to use.
Sweet Peach and Tarragon Salad Instructions:
- Slice your peaches into linear bite-sized pieces. Reserve in a bowl and follow with your honey aleppo pepper blend. Toss to combine.
- Next, peel your carrots. Once peeled, lay the carrot flat and put pressure on the peeler to create long tendrils that are able to be rolled. Reserve them until you are ready to plate.
- Lastly, cut into your avocado and peel away at the skin leaving you with two pieces. Next, evenly slice into the avocado to create neatly cut pieces to plate with.
- Using a hot pan, pan sear your halloumi by adding your avocado oil and allowing the cheese to brown. Be sure to keep a close eye so that it doesn't melt too much! Pat dry & slice as desired. Reserve.
- Note plating instructions below.
Sweet Potato or Crunchy Carrot Alternative Instructions:
- Peel your sweet potato or carrots and cut them into large matchsticks.
- Reserve in water for a few minutes to remove starch.
- Next, cook the sweet potatoes or carrots until al dente. The carrots will take no more than 3 minutes after the water begins to boil. The potatoes may take up to 5 minutes. Strain and pat dry with a clean paper towel.
- To finish, coat the sweet potato or carrots in the remaining ingredients and cook in your air fryer (or oven) at 400 degrees fahrenheit for at least 10 minutes, shaking halfway through.
PLATING INSTRUCTIONS:
- Start off by plating the dressing as the first ingredient to hit the plate. Next, freely stack your peaches, carrots, or sweet potatoes on the plate following with your avocado, shaved carrots, and grilled halloumi.
- Next, add additional dressing and your aleppo pepper honey blend to the salad along with freshly cracked pepper. Serve & Enjoy!
Try a few of my other recipes below that pair nicely with this stone fruit salad!
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