Grilled Peach Salad with Goat Cheese

Today, I’m celebrating peach season with my Grilled Peach Salad, which embodies everything magical about this time of year! Combined with fresh greens, soft goat cheese, and crunchy nuts, this salad is a naturally vegetarian and seriously delicious tribute to summer.

I absolutely love fresh, juicy peaches! When peak peach season rolls around, I find an excuse to include them in every dish, like my beloved peach prosciutto salad or homemade peach cobbler. So, when I learned that peaches are made even sweeter when grilled, I knew I had to roll my sleeves up and get to work making a grilled peach salad. After putting my latest batch of peaches over open flames, I can confirm that their caramelized, slightly smoky flavor is truly out of this world! 

The salad comes together effortlessly from there with a simple ingredient list: crunchy greens, soft goat cheese, nuts, and a drizzle of my favorite homemade vinaigrette. It’s quickly become a go-to in my house for light lunches and a starter for summer dinners. My family and guests can’t get enough, and neither can I (especially when I serve it with a peach bourbon smash!). I’ll be sad to see peach season go, but until then, you can find me hovering over the grill, fixing up my favorite fruit, summer cookout-style.

Jump to:

• Why You'll Love It
• 🥂Make it A Rosy Moment
• Important Ingredients
• Full Recipe Below
• Step by Step Instructions
• Top Tip
• Tips for the Perfect Grilled Peach Salad
• Recipe Variations
• 💡Recipe FAQ
• Related Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

Why You'll Love It

My grilled peach salad recipe is bursting with flavor, loaded with nutritious fruits and veggies, and ready to serve within 15 minutes. What more can we ask of a salad?!

• Sweetest way to enjoy peaches! Peaches get even sweeter by way of grilling. The process of grilling actually caramelizes the natural sugars and draws out the juices, resulting in a burst of concentrated sweetness, with a dash of smokiness from the grill itself. 

• Healthy and won’t weigh you down. With sweet peaches, savory goat cheese, and tangy vinaigrette, this peach salad is a marriage of flavors and textures – but it’s still light! I love making this a quick lunch on hot days when I don’t want to feel weighed down, and as a starter dish for larger family meals or dinner parties. 

• Comes together in minutes. The most time-consuming part of this entire recipe is grilling the peaches, but that takes 5 minutes at most. You’ll be able to dig into this salad within 15-20 minutes of making!

Important Ingredients

The juicy, caramelized peaches combined with salad greens, goat cheese, and toasted nuts make a beautiful salad to pay homage to one of the best times of year. 

Peach Salad

• Peaches - Grab 3 firm but ripe peaches, halved and pitted. When grilled, these fuzzy gems turn sweet as candy! 
• Olive Oil - Brush the peaches with a light coat of olive oil to prevent them from sticking on the grill. You’ll also need olive oil for the vinaigrette dressing. I recommend extra-virgin olive oil because it has the smoothest taste and finish.
• Leafy Greens - Select your salad greens of choice – arugula, watercress, spicy spring mix, lettuce, or baby spinach are great options. You’ll need 6 cups for this salad.
• Goat Cheese - Goat cheese takes this salad to the next level with its creamy consistency and tangy flavor. The saltiness paired with the peaches’ natural sweetness is pure poetry!
• Nuts - Add a quarter cup of toasted walnuts, Marcona almonds, pine nuts, or pecans for a firm, crunchy texture. 
• Fresh Basil - A handful of torn basil enhances the range of flavors in the salad, and tastes so fresh!
• Flaky salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
• Optional: a few slices of prosciutto.

Balsamic Dressing

• White Balsamic Vinegar - Vinegar is the base of any good vinaigrette, of course. I use white balsamic because I love its complexity, but feel free to use any vinegar variety – red balsamic, red wine vinegar, apple cider, or even champagne vinegar.
• Dijon Mustard - Helps to emulsify the oil and vinegar, and gives a zesty taste.
• Honey - A teaspoon of honey will balance the vinegar and mustard’s tart acidity.
• Optional: a splash of lemon juice for bright flavor.

Swaps and Substitutions

This grilled peach recipe is as delicious when made with the recommended ingredients as it is when made with these approved swaps:

• Nectarines Instead of Peaches. Nectarines and peaches are basically identical aside from their skin (fuzzy on peaches, smooth on nectarines), making nectarines the perfect substitute. They’ll be just as juicy, sweet, and slightly smoky when grilled. 

• Fresh Produce: Get the most out of summer veggies and include cucumbers, red onion, tomato, and even avocado in this salad. More crunch, color, and deliciousness!

• Cheese Alternatives. Instead of goat cheese, you could use feta, fresh mozzarella, creamy burrata, ricotta, or bleu cheese. You’ll still get that nice salty flavor to counterbalance the caramelized sweetness from the peaches. To make it dairy-free, exclude cheese entirely.

• Nut-Allergy Friendly. Keep the salad nut-free by omitting the almonds and walnuts. Add some crunch back in with a handful of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or hemp seeds. 

Step by Step Instructions

Tips for the Perfect Grilled Peach Salad

Grilling peaches might seem intimidating at first, but these well-executed tips will make the cooking process quick, straightforward, and successful.

1. Monitor the peach grilling time. My instructions say to grill the peach slices cut-side down for 2-3 minutes, but you might need more or less time, so monitor progress closely. Remember that peaches on the riper side will grill faster, needing less cooking time. 
2. Keep the peaches thick. I recommend cutting the peaches in half to grill, but you can also grill smaller peach slices. The trick here is to cut them into thick enough slices or wedges to prevent them from falling apart on the grill grates as they cook.
3. Storage directions. Once the salad is dressed with the vinaigrette, it’s difficult to keep it fresh, even in the refrigerator. I recommend storing the salad components and dressing separately to keep the leafy greens crisp, preserve the fresh flavors, and prevent the textures from getting soggy. Keep grilled peaches in a separate airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. 

Recipe Variations

Grilled peach salads are so adaptable to dietary restrictions – one of the many reasons why I love them! You can also experiment with adding protein and grilling different fruits, elevating the salad even further.

• Roasted Peach Salad: Instead of grilling, roast the peaches. It’s a great option if you don’t have a grill available or if you’re not a fan of smoky, charred flavor. Roasting will cook the peaches more evenly, making them tender and soft. They may not be as caramelized, but they’ll taste just as sweet!
• Add Protein: I’ll occasionally add a few slices of prosciutto to my salad, and the saltiness enhances the sweetness of the peaches! You can also add grilled chicken, salmon, or steak, or even grilled tofu, to keep it vegetarian-friendly.
• Switch Up the Grilled Fruit. Peaches aren’t the only fruit that gets better on the grill – many different fruits taste amazing when kissed by flames. You can also try grilling pineapple, watermelon, apricot, pears, mangoes, or figs. Just like peaches, their flavor will only intensify and sweeten over the heat! You can also grill blueberries, pitted cherries, and blackberries in a grill basket or sprinkle them fresh over the salad.

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