A ripe summer peach is a slice of heaven. Orange or ruby red, sporting luscious velvety skin, its succulent flesh encapsulates a work of delicious wonder. As soon as you sink your teeth in it and juice starts running down your chin, the magical experience gains new proportions. The fully fledged vibrantly sweet flavor, the wholesome mouthful brimming with astringent undertones, the thirst-quenching natural sugars – mmmm, so much yumminess in one single bite. Seriously now, can there ever be more delightfully refreshing ingredients than summer produce, peaches included? 🙂
This recipe is an ode to summer peach perfection, and it contains a mix of nutritious ingredients shopped locally and grown/made by socially minded companies. I don’t use peaches in salads very often, but this salad clearly commanded their inclusion. The Californian peaches I had bought were so good that I just had to mix them with equally delicious elements for the experience to be truly complete.
For this salad I used Josie’s Organics green kale as well as flowering kale (a less common kale variety I had found at the grocery store by chance). I added crunchy, beautifully textured red bell peppers, a simple fresh herb vinaigrette, and Everything but the Bagel seasoning. Naturally, being the cheeseaholic that I am, I could not pass on the opportunity to use award-winning fresh mozzarella from one of my all-time favorite companies: Caputo Cheese (you can read my thorough review of their cheeses here).
Leave the cheese out if you want a vegan salad.
The vibrancy of the fresh peaches is so enticing and so thought-provoking! In the midst of this pandemic, when days go by quickly and uneventfully and many of us are sheltering in place, can it really be summer? These peaches are the best confirmation 🙂
Nutrition and taste are beautifully illustrated in this salad, which brings together some of the season’s best produce with strikingly delicious results. Cut into tiny pieces, the kale benefits from the addition of peaches, which tames and transforms the former’s all-too-crunchy texture. At the same time, flavor-wise, the peaches bring about a delightful fruit pizzazz, which instantly puts you in a cheerful foodie mood, and gets you coming back for second helpings. With or without the milky goodness of the cheese, the peaches are a genuine master force in this dish. Don’t be fooled by their delicate flesh or velvety skin. Summer peaches are strong-minded, deliciously assertive, and joyfully savored during the sunny season – and they create meaningful memories to last a lifetime 🙂
Do you use peaches in salads? Let me know in the comments!
Delicious kale and peach summer salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup green and flowering kale, cut into tiny pieces
- 1/2 large peach, cut into thin slices
- 4-5 slices fresh mozzarella
- 1 tbsp Everything but the Bagel seasoning
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp fresh herbs, finely chopped (I recommend using a mix of oregano, thyme and parsley)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place kale, peach and mozzarella in a medium size mixing bowl. In a separate small bowl make the vinaigrette by mixing oil and vinegar with fresh herbs. Pour the vinaigrette over the ingredients in the medium mixing bowl. Add Everything but the Bagel seasoning, and mix until uniformly combined. Add salt and pepper, if necessary. Serve salad slightly chilled.
- Enjoy!
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