Spinach Salad with Grilled Peaches and Blue Cheese
Spinach Salad with Grilled Peaches and Blue Cheese: A delicious, seasonal salad with juicy, fresh peaches that are caramelized on the BBQ.
Spinach Salad with Grilled Peaches and Blue Cheese
Peach season comes and goes too darn quickly. I need to get my fill of pies, crisps and cobblers while this juicy, fragrant fruit is available at my favorite produce stand. I haven’t spotted any local peaches, yet, but the Georgia peaches have been succulent and flavorful. When we had a group of friends over for dinner, I decided to go rogue and make a Spinach Salad with Grilled Peaches and Blue Cheese.
Why Grill Fruit?
I’m sure those of you seasoned cooks out there know how wonderful grilled fruit tastes. The grilling process actually caramelizes the sugars and along with the evaporation of liquid that occurs with cooking, the fruit actually tastes sweeter, even a bit more concentrated in flavor.
Try grilling any stone fruit or slices of pineapple and serving them with a scoop of vanilla for dessert. Mind you, this is much easier if you own a gas grill and can control the heat more accurately.
We, at Chez Skinny Chick, have to deal with a stubborn man who will not give up his charcoal grill nor supplement it with a gas version for his sweet wife to use. So proceed with caution and let your coals die down or set up half your grill with indirect heat if you’re in the same boat.
Spinach Salad with Grilled Peaches and Blue Cheese
Recipe adapted from Michael Symon
Ingredients
- 4 firm peaches, peeled, pitted and halved
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ cup sherry vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 ½ teaspoons honey
- Kosher salt
- ½ cup pecan halves, toasted
- 4 cups baby spinach
- ½-1 cup crumbled blue cheese
Instructions
- Grill peaches, flat side down over low heat till warmed (may use an outdoor grill or grill pan). Set aside to cool before slicing each half into 4 pieces.
- Make the dressing by whisking together the garlic, vinegar, mustard, honey, and salt. Slowly whisk in the remaining olive oil.
- For a composed salad, place spinach into a bowl and arrange peaches, nuts, and blue cheese over greens. Drizzle with a bit of the dressing.
- To serve, drizzle with more dressing and toss.
Notes
To keep the peaches from browning, coat lightly with salad dressing before arranging over the greens.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 178Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 8mgSodium: 265mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 3gSugar: 12gProtein: 5g
36 Comments on “Spinach Salad with Grilled Peaches and Blue Cheese”
Presentation is gorgeous! Perfect! Love fruit in my salads.
That is one incredible salad. I LOVE grilled peaches in a savory dish.
Grilled peaches are the best and I love this high tech salad!
Hmmm, peaches often get overlooked for salads. Love it!
This is a beautiful salad… love how you displayed it.
I love peach season and am always sad when it’s over too soon too! I love that you decided to grill them, it sounds amazing with the spinach, pecans and blue cheese!
Beautiful AND delicious!! I’ve never combined peaches and blue cheese, but you make it look like they belong together. Great salad!
Yeah, this salad does it for me. Grilled peaches and blue cheese…totally gets me. Love the simple vinaigrette too. Totally fabulous, Liz!
Stunning, I love grilled fruit in salads everything you say is right the flavour just explodes. I must give this salad a go its simply stunning.
I have grilled peaches, they are AMAZING. Your salad is divine for sure and great blue cheese pecan additions.
I love how everyone not in GA gets beautiful GA peaches yet the only decent ones that I can find are from California!! I love the flavor combination here! And I have been eating peaches on my salads for months! It’s almost as good as dessert…almost. Love!
What a great way to use peaches! I’ve been using them in desserts and eating them as is (lots of them) but never thought of adding them to a salad. Thanks for the inspiration!
Now this is my kind of salad! I can’t wait for peach season and I can’t believe I didn’t take advantage of all the stone fruits that were in season while I was in NY. I love sweet fruits like this with blue cheese and nuts – excellent combination xx
Lizzy, that is a very pretty salad! I’ll skip the blue cheese and munch on the pecans. I love Pecans! Sorry peaches 🙂
This is such a pretty salad Liz…I absolutely love the idea of the roasted peach and the blue cheese…great combo.
Hope you are having a fabulous week 😀
Love the grill marks on the peaches. With the combo of sweet and savory ingredients, it does look like a winner salad. P.s. I agree that the aforementioned husband should give his said sweet wife a grill in exchange for all the chocolate treats she bakes =)
Lizzy, this looks wonderful. I have never thought of using peaches in a salad, even though I have had berries in salads before. This is a must to try. Grilling fruit is something I haven’t done either, sounds delicious.
Lizzy,
Your salad looks perfect. My hubby prefers the charcoal grill to the gas grill.
Annamaria
Liz, this is just gorgeous! Love it.
So pretty, i love grilled peaches and blue cheese sounds just perfect!
I’m not ready for the season to end, so bring on the peach recipes! I recently tried grilled fruit and I was amazed how delicious it tasted. Your salad is simple and healthy!
This is soooooo super gorgeous! Love it and all the beautiful produce in it! Pinning!
I will bet the mustard puts that perfect blend of flavors to these!
Hi Lizzy, I’ve been so MIA from my blog for weeks, and also from commenting on blogs, that I’m starting to feel guilty for not visiting and commenting, at least!
Your Grilled peach salad, is elegant, delicious, and superb! Lately, I’ve been seeing at our grocery stores all these gourmet salads, prepared with nuts, fruits, and cheeses with the salad dressing included on the side…but I would much rather build my own salad with all my fresh ingredients, like yours, and certainly make a yummy and healthy lunch out of it. Well done, my dear friend…missed you! xoxo
This looks gorgeous: summery, colorful and so delicious! I love it 🙂
I’m just starting to see local peaches in quantity. They’re at all farmers markets and a few stores, but not yet at the store where I usually shop. Anyway, love the idea of peaches in salad! Grilled peaches have such wonderful flavor, don’t they? I love roasting them, too, but grilling makes more sense at this time of the year. Fun recipe — thanks.
this is a great idea to sweeten up a salad!
I love this kind of salad, “sucré-salé” together ! And with blue cheese it must be delicious !
This salad looks delicious, Lizzy. I could eat peaches every day during the season and I’m always looking for a new way to serve them. I can almost taste the peach-blue cheese combo.
Too funny, I have a gas grill and keep trying to talk Sous Chef into a charcoal grill since I think they add a little more flavor and diversity.
This salad is perfect for our hot weather – I’m going to try it next week when we return from the wedding!
I love grilled fruits- they get so sweet and a little smoky. Blue cheese is the perfect complement.
I love grilled peaches. . and tossed with the spinach, blue cheese and pecans?! oh my goodness, love!! I want this salad for lunch!
Liz, I’ve actually never grilled any fruit before, and so this post left me wondering why! I love the other flavours you’ve added into this salad, especially the blue cheese and pecans.
Great salad! Cheese and peaches.. sounds like a great combinations. I wonder if adding a bit of chicken 🙂
Very pretty and I’ll bet very flavorful! I think the family should all get together and get you a gas grill for Christmas:@)
From reading another blog, I learned about “grilling” peaches for the first time last year and I gave it a try. Our family LOVED IT! It’s been a year since and I haven’t made one this year. Your beautiful salad just reminded me. Your salad looks so refreshing and delicious! Must enjoy this salad before summer ends!