Grilled Peaches Two Ways

If you have seen some of the other recipe posts, you know I like to maximize an ingredient or two in a couple dishes I am making together. Green onions in the Jerk Chicken and Macaroni Salad that go great together, tomatoes and basil in the rustic roasted pesto and caprese salad, and today; peaches!

I am loving all the peach recipes I have been seeing online and in restaurants lately and wanted to make my own take on grilled peach salads and desserts with this grilled peaches two ways post.

I love a mix of sweet and savory flavors in any dish I am eating, and the sweetness of the peaches with the savory char from the grill elevates both this summer salad and super simple dessert.

First, Grilled Peach and Marinated Tomato Summer Salad with Burrata. This is something I had in mind before going grocery shopping but kind of improvised with the ingredients in the kitchen and the produce that looked good. When I walked past the shallots after noticing the red wine vinegar in the cupboard I thought about making sort of a mignonette dressing for the salad and decided to marinate the tomatoes for the salad. I think this would be great with a balsamic based dressing as well but the tart red wine vinegar and shallots tastes so fresh and summer.

Secondly is dessert, which is as easy as topping these grilled peaches with some cinnamon sugar and your favorite vanilla ice cream.

For the Salad (Serves 4):

• Peaches … 2 or 3
• Rainbow Cherry Tomatoes … 1 pack
• Shallot … 1 small bulb
• Red Wine Vinegar … ¼ cup
• Olive Oil … ¼ cup
• Honey … 1 tbsp
• Garlic Powder … 1 tsp
• Salt & Pepper …. to taste
• Burrata … 1 large ball
• Basil … 5 leaves to garnish

For the Dessert (Serves 4, you want appx ½ peach per person):

• Peaches … 2 or 3
• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream … 1 container
• Butter … ¼ cup melted
• Cinnamon … 1 tsp
• White or Brown Sugar … 3 tbsp

To make the salad:

1. Rinse and halve the rainbow cherry tomatoes. You can use heirloom tomatoes or larger tomatoes instead and cube them but I love the flavor and the color of rainbow cherry tomatoes for this dish.
2. Use a cheese grater to grate the shallot. Use more or less depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. *I recommend grating it because it gets more of the juice in the dish and it blends really well so you don’t get a chunk of raw shallot while you are eating, but you could finely mince it as well.
3. In a bowl, combine the halved cherry tomatoes, grated shallot, olive oil and red wine vinegar.
4. Mix well and add honey, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix again and taste. Add more seasoning depending on your preferences until it is right.
5. Cover tightly and place in fridge for about 20 minutes. Do this before grilling the peaches.
6. Grill the peaches (See directions below) *If you make both dishes at the same time, follow the directions to grill the desert and salad peaches together, or just follow the steps for the savory peaches grilled with olive oil instead of butter.
7. When peaches have cooled to the touch, place them on the edge of serving plate or platter.
8. Place burrata in the middle of the plate.
9. Remove tomatoes from the fridge and fill in the rest of the plate with them.
10. Garnish with basil leaves and some of the extra juice from the tomatoes and serve with a knife to cut up the peaches.

To Grill the Peaches:

• You can grill the peaches for dessert and the salad at the same time, but start with the dessert peaches.

1. Heat grill to medium high heat.
2. Cut peaches in half and remove pit.
3. Melt butter in a small bowl.
4. Coat half the peaches in butter for dessert on the cut side and place in container face down in butter.
5. Coat other half of peaches in olive oil for salad and place in another container face down.
6. Place peaches cut side down onto the hot grill and DON’T move them for about 6-8 minutes (Michael explained to me that because of the sugar they will stick so you don’t want to move them around because it will rip up the peaches instead of giving you the char marks)
7. Mix cinnamon and sugar together
8. Remove peaches from grill and while they cool sprinkle the cinnamon sugar onto the buttered ones, and salt and pepper onto the olive oil ones.

To make the dessert:

1. Grill the peaches with butter according to directions above.
2. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
3. Depending on when you are serving this after grilling you can microwave the peaches for 30 seconds before serving.
4. Top with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!
5. Garnish with cinnamon for more flavor, or with granola for more of a cobbler taste.

Would you try one, or both of these? What are your favorite ingredients to use multiple ways?