If I’m looking for a star of my plate, seasonal items are usually my best choice. Seasonal fruit inspire what I cook many times. One, if they’re in season, they’re sweeter and fresher, and two, they can also be grown locally which allows for a shorter commute to your nearest supermarket—which also means, it has maintained a greater amount of its nutrients. The longer produce items are exposed to oxygen, the sun, and gets older by the day on its way to the market, the less nutrient dense it will remain. So seasonal is best!
One of the fruits that have recently made their way into my kitchen, that I loved eating as a kid in the summertime, are Peaches! Peaches are sweet, when ripe of course, and they have an interesting unique texture. They’re also quite good for us! Peaches are known to help prevent cancer, obesity, imbalanced cholesterol, and neurodegenerative diseases. They also promotes healthy vision, skin, bones, teeth and a healthy nervous system. Peaches are rich in Vitamin A, beta carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, and Folate. And on top of that, they also provide minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron and more. I’d say now’s a great time to get peaches on your plate!
Recently, one of the chefs at work was grilling a boatload of peaches and he offered me some. I so wanted it but I had just finished eating lunch and couldn’t eat another bite. A couple of days later, I was thinking, man those peaches looked mighty good on the grill, I’m to make some at home and share it on the blog. So I made a Grilled Peach Arugula Salad with Balsamic Reduction!
If you’re thinking, ‘you want me to start up my grill for peaches, only?!’, I totally get it because I wouldn’t even do that myself! Psst, I have a little secret, I don’t even have an actual grill to do this. Ha! This is how I did it. There’s this awesome pan that I got from Home Goods about 5 years ago—it’s called a grill pan. It has raised grill bars on its surface, and that’s what makes the grill marks to whatever you’re cooking. This is the grill pan I use.
Just put your stove top burner on medium high to high, and lightly oil your food with a brush or whatever you have at home that’ll do the job, then get to “grilling.” It’s brilliant!
When you go to work with your grilled lunch, you get to share something cool about your meal with your co-workers! Enjoy!
GRILLED PEACH ARUGULA SALAD WITH BALSAMIC REDUCTION
Ingredients
3 Peaches (some for leftovers)
2-3 cups of Arugula
½ cup Blueberries
½ cup Fresh Mozzarella, pieces
1 ½ cup Balsamic Vinegar
Salt + Pepper, to taste
Instructions
-Peaches-
Cut your peaches as close to the pit as possible without hitting the pit and do the same to the other side so you have essentially two halves of your peach cut
Feel free to cut the other narrow sides as well
Lightly oil your peach pieces with olive oil, season it with a sprinkle of salt and pepper
Turn on your stovetop burner up to medium-high to high heat and wait for it to get hot
Once hot, place your peaches onto the grill pan flesh faced down
Grill until you get the grill marks you desire, then remove from pan
-Balsamic Reduction-
Pour your balsamic vinegar into a sauce pot and turn your burner to medium heat
Let bubble for a few minutes, then bring it down to a simmer until vinegar begins to thicken
Keep an eye on what will become essentially a pourable glaze for your salad—you don’t want it to burn or get thick like tar
When it gets to the consistency you desire, remove from stove and let cool
Once cooled down, pour your reduction onto the salad
To powerful workweeks and good eats!
Love,
Yardley
