Peach Salad, Memorize this Template to Make Any Salad

This perfect Peach Salad with arugula, salty umami cheese, crunchy walnuts, and a spicy, tangy, subtly sweet dressing is the salad you'll be making and eating all summer long. And the most important part of this entire series, is the fact that the recipe is more a template that you can use in every season. Shall we?

Explore More

• What Ingredients You Need for Peach Caprese Salad
• Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources
• Instructions for How to Make Peach Salad
• Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage
• Tools and Equipment
• What Else to Serve with Peach Salad
• Wine for Peach Salad
• Perfect Peach Caprese Salad

What Ingredients You Need for Peach Caprese Salad

• Peaches or nectarines, firm-ripe
• Arugula
• Feta
• Walnuts
• Red onion
• Balsamic Vinaigrette or Basil Pesto Vinaigrette

Substitutions to Use This Recipe as a Template for Any Salad

To make any other version of this salad, you will fill in these blanks, some suggestions included:

• Fruit. Any sweet, tart seasonal fruit, and yes that includes the original inspiration, tomatoes in summer, which as well all know, is actually a fruit. This salad template works well with ANY stone fruit from apricots to cherries to plums, figs in early fall, and persimmons in winter.
• Bitter greens that don't always have to be green, like arugula, endive, radicchio
• Cheese. Salty, fresh to semi-firm cheese like feta or ricotta salata
• Nuts or seeds like almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pepitas
• Dressing. High acid, sweet dressing like Balsamic Vinaigrette, Hot Honey Balsamic, or Ginger Basil pesto Vinaigrette

Best Dressing for Peach Salad

Any salad with sweet, tart fruit as an ingredient is best with a similarly sweet, tart vinegar-based dressing, as opposed to a umami-rich creamy dressing. For this Peach Salad, use the Hot Honey Balsamic Dressing included as part of the recipe and its own printable version here.

These are some of the best dressing options for Peach Salad:

• Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Hot Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Basil Pesto Vinaigrette
• Ginger Lime Vinaigrette
• Apple Cider Vinaigrette

Peaches vs Nectarines, Does it Matter Which One You Use?

Technically, it does not matter if you use a peach versus a nectarine in this recipe, or any other dish for that matter. Peaches and nectarines are the same tree-grown stone fruit and are identical in flavor. Some people say there is a difference in flavor between the two, but it's almost undetectable to me.

However, a small genetic difference accounts for the most noticeable outward difference between the two: peaches have a fuzzy outer skin and nectarines have a smooth, shiny fuzz-free skin.

The smooth, shiny skin is what makes nectarines my personal preference for salads. You can leave the nectarine skins on, which means you get whatever additional health benefit like fiber and antioxidants in the peels. More importantly, you don't have to spend any time peeling the fruit. Fuzzy peach skins are 100% edible and perfectly fine to eat, and some of the fuzz will rub off when you wash and dry them, but I personally prefer the texture of the smooth nectarine skins.

If you have peaches and also prefer a fuzz-free experience, just peel them before adding to this salad!

Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources

Arugula. There are a few varieties of arugula, and the one that's most widely available in grocery stores is the small arugula leaves sometimes labeled "baby arugula" sold in plastic bags or clamshells. Arugula labeled "wild" has a sharper taste. Sometimes you may find large leaves of arugula like the arugula pictured in the Peach Salad above, which will have a similar flavor as the smaller leaves, but will be much less bitter.

Feta. Because peaches are sweet, feta cheese is a perfect balance taste-wise because it is salty and slightly funky. I buy mine from either Bristol Farms or Whole Foods, though when I am feeling fancy, I shop at the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Walnuts. Shockingly, organic, whole walnuts are a great deal at Costco. Buy them in bulk, keep a mason jar of them on your counter to eat weekly, and put the rest in the freezer for longer term storage.

Pickled onions. I make Perfect Pickled Onions every week as literally the only food I "meal prep" for the week. You can also simply slice fresh onions paper-thin and soak them in ice water for 10-15 minutes before adding to the salad.

All other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, or Whole Foods Market when I can't find what I need at the farmers' market.

Instructions for How to Make Peach Salad

Make the Hot Honey Balsamic Dressing first, then assemble the Peach Salad.

Pro-tip: Because arugula is a delicate green and wilts almost immediately after dressing, drizzle with vinaigrette just before serving, or let the people eating dress their individual salads themselves just before eating.

Advance Prep, Leftovers, and Storage

Make the Hot Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing up to five days in advance.

Slice the peaches up to 1 day in advance.

Wash and prep the arugula up to 1 day in advance. Make sure the arugula is BONE-DRY before storing in refrigerator.

Once the salad has been dressed, leftovers of the salad do not keep well.

Tools and Equipment

You don't technically need any special equipment to make this Peach Salad. You can simply use a large knife and cutting board to chop all vegetables. However, that doesn't mean there are a couple of gadgets and tools that might make this salad even easier to throw together than it already is.

• Salad spinner - this has saved my sanity because wet, soggy greens are the worst, and arugula in particular needs to be BONE DRY to keep it from wilting.
• Chef's knife - my daily workhorse knife
• Cutting board - large and sturdy so you have enough surface area for all the fluffy greens, and doesn't move around on the countertop
• Japanese-style mandoline - to make lightning fast work of slicing the firmer vegetables. When you start eating a LOT of vegetables, this will be a lifesaver.

For the Hot Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette, these tools are also helpful

• BlendJet cordless personal blender - I don't know how I survived my salad days without this
• 2-ounce (4 tablespoons) liquid measuring cup
• Garlic press
• Mini whisk
• Wide-mouth mason jars and air-tight screw-on lids

What Else to Serve with Peach Salad

• Add cooked quinoa to give the salad a plant-based protein boost!
• Add 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast to make it a hearty main dish salad
• Top with a generous piece of omega-3-rich salmon to make this an antioxidant-rich meal.

Wine for Peach Salad

You have a couple of directions you can follow for wine pairing with Peach Salad. Either take the fragrance lead of the peaches, or follow the sweet, salty, and sour flavors of the Hot Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Salads dressed with vinaigrettes almost always calls for a high-acid white wine to match the high acidity of the dressing.

For something a little more fun, this wine is made from California-grown sangiovese, and fermented as whole clusters in a process called carbonic maceration so the wine has a slight natural fizz.

For more tips on pairing wine with food, check out this post about wines from Paso Robles, California, and this post about wines from Santa Barbara, California.