Over the past two weeks, we’ve shared two delicious salads from Love & Lemons as part of this month’s Guest Recipes series. (If you missed them, be sure to check out the Grilled Panzanella and the Strawberry Quinoa Salad.) For this week’s recipe, Jeanine and Jack put together the most brilliant Grilled Peach Salad with pesto. I’m looking forward to trying this one over the weekend. Thanks for the recipe, Jeanine and Jack!
Grilled Peach Salad with Mint & Basil Pesto
serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side
I’ve been a peach purist until now. Peaches and cream, cobblers, and peach cakes have never been my thing. Plain ripe peaches with sticky hands and peach juice running down my elbows is more like it … So why mess with a good thing? Because it turns out that sometimes good things can be made even better.
The natural caramelized sweetness that came out of these peaches straight off the grill was to die for. Paired with contrasting flavors—spicy arugula, creamy fresh mozzarella, and herb-y pesto. It’s complete perfection. This one has moved to the top of my list for favorite summertime dishes. It’s simple enough to put together for a light weeknight meal, but fancy enough to serve as a starter at your next dinner party. This one’s sure to impress even your snobbiest of foodie friends. —Jeanine
Ingredients
2 firm, yet ripe peaches
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 c baby arugula
fresh mozzarella, sliced
a few dollops of pesto
2 Tbs pine nuts, toasted and chopped
salt & pepper
Mint & Basil Pesto:
1 c packed mix of mint & basil
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted (you could also use walnuts)
1/2 garlic clove, roughly chopped
juice and zest from 1/2 a lemon
1/4 c olive oil (or more)
a few pinches of red pepper flakes
salt & pepper
Slice the peaches into 6 segments per peach. In a small bowl, toss peaches with olive oil, balsamic, and just a small pinch of salt.
Heat your grill (or grill pan) to medium-high heat and brush it with some oil. Place the peach slices on the hot grill and cook each side for 2-3 minutes without moving them (near the end you can gently peek to see how your grill marks are coming along).
A few notes about grilling peaches: They will pick up the flavors of what you previously grilled on your grill. Depending on what that was, you may want to clean your grill well before beginning. Also, I experimented with using grill pans—a cast-iron (seasoned) grill pan and a nonstick grill pan. The nonstick created “prettier” grill marks because the peaches stuck less. The seasoned cast-iron pan imparted a hint of zucchini flavor from a previous dinner (that was surprisingly not awful tasting). Both ways, the peaches tasted wonderful.
When your peaches are grilled, set them aside and allow them to cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, make the pesto. Combine all ingredients in a small food processor and pulse to combine. Add more oil for a smoother pesto, or leave it chunky—whichever consistency you prefer.
Toss the arugula with just a little bit of olive oil and a few pinches of salt. Assemble on a platter and top with mozzarella slices, peaches, dollops of pesto, and a few pinches of red pepper flakes. Squeeze just a bit of lemon on top and serve.
Last week we kicked off a new Guest Recipes series with a Strawberry Quinoa Salad from Love & Lemons. In our next installment, Jack and Jeanine are continuing the salad theme with a delicious looking panzanella (Italian bread salad). Their version features grilled bread, and is the perfect accompaniment to any summer meal—or perhaps a meal on its own. Thanks for sharing this with us, Jack and Jeanine!
Grilled Panzanella with Poached Eggs
serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side
I love charred bread, but I haven’t always. When I was younger, my dad ate all the family reject burnt food. Overdone toast, accidentally burnt pancakes, cookies we left in the oven too long … my sister and I had a preference toward underdone and doughy food so whatever we messed up and overcooked, we’d pile on a plate for my dad. And he’d say “this is the best kind.”
The first time I put burnt toast on a plate for Jack, he looked at me and said, “What’s this, am I your dad now?” I had just always assumed that burnt food equaled man food. So over time, I selflessly became the eater of the black toast … not quite as black as the way my dad liked it, but I’ve come to love bread with a nice deep char. Especially in a salad like this.
Toasty, garlicky bread cubes kick up your average panzanella. That char offers such a delightful contrast to the juicy tomatoes, sweet basil, and fruity olive oil.
Make it a full meal by topping it with a poached egg. —Jeanine
Ingredients
1 small red onion, sliced thin
half loaf of day-old ciabatta bread
olive oil
1/2 garlic clove
1 1/2 c cherry and/or pear tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 c ricotta salata cheese, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
5 or 6 basil leaves, torn
1/4 c toasted pine nuts
2-4 eggs, for poaching (optional)
Dressing:
1/4 c olive oil
2 tbsp champagne vinegar (or white or red wine vinegar)
squeeze of lemon juice (1-2 tbsp, to taste)
salt & pepper, to taste
a few pinches of red pepper flakes
Optional step: In a small bowl, toss red onion slices with a teaspoon or two of the champagne vinegar. Set aside while you work on the rest of the steps. This helps cut down on the harsh raw onion taste.
Slice bread into 1/2-inch thick slices, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle a few pinches of salt and grill both sides until lightly charred. Remove bread from grill and rub it it with the sliced side of the garlic clove while the bread is still warm. Chop the bread into cubes and set aside.
In another small bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients and set aside.
In a large bowl toss the bread cubes, tomatoes, onion slices, ricotta salata, and basil together with the dressing. Top with toasted pine nuts and a few more red pepper flakes. Allow the salad to sit for 15-20 minutes for the dressing to soak into the bread. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Top plated servings with poached eggs if you wish. (I love this foolproof tutorial for poaching eggs.)
For July, I’m looking forward to sharing another series of Guest Recipes. This month, we’ve got the talented husband and wife duo from Love & Lemons. Jeanine and Jack live in Austin, Texas where Jeanine does most of the cooking and recipe scheming for their blog. Jack, who runs a video game company by day, does most of the photography.
Jeanine has a way with vegetables, like her Roasted Carrots with Cilantro Yogurt and Cauliflower Crust Pizza, so when we decided to put this series together, we asked the pair to come up with a series of seasonal salads for warmer weather. We’ll be sharing an original Love and Lemons’ creation each week, and having gotten a preview of all four, I can tell you they all look mouthwatering. Thanks for sharing these with us, Jack and Jeanine!
Quinoa, Strawberry & Feta Salad
serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a side
I’m not gonna lie, while I was making this my husband Jack was doubting. He’s not particularly crazy about strawberries as it is, so he wasn’t so thrilled to see them for dinner… but he loved this. I feel like I deserve a pat on the back for winning him over, but really the guy can be convinced of anything as long as there’s cheese involved.
The salty feta is the perfect contrast to the sweet, juicy strawberries. They’re mixed together with hearty quinoa, crunchy walnuts, and tossed in a light, tangy lemon dressing. This would be great as a side dish for a picnic but it’s also hearty enough to be a full meal. We ate it along with some simply grilled salmon. The plan was to save the leftovers for lunch the next day, but if you put a bowl of food between the two of us, leftovers don’t stand a chance. —Jeanine
Ingredients
1 1/2 c cooked quinoa (3/4 c uncooked, plus 1 1/2 c water)
3/4 c sliced strawberries (about 5-6 large strawberries)
1/2 c chopped or crumbled feta
1/4 c chopped mint
1/4 c chopped scallions (green and white parts)
1/3 c chopped walnuts, toasted
2 c baby salad greens
1/4 c sprouts (optional)
Lemon Honey Vinaigrette:
2 tbsp olive oil (plus a little more to drizzle on at the end)
2 tbsp lemon juice (plus a little more to squeeze on at the end)
1 tbsp champagne vinegar
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp honey
salt & pepper
Cook your quinoa. I like this method.
In a small bowl whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients.
Toss all salad ingredients together and pour on the dressing. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. I added a final squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil on top.
This is the kind of salad that gets better as it sits and the flavors mesh together… so if you have the patience, let it chill for 15-20 minutes before serving. Make extra if you want leftovers for lunch the next day.
Today we have our final installment of Guest Recipes with Sam and Catherine from Island Menu. Over the past four weeks, they’ve shared delicious recipes for Blueberry Cinnamon Buns, Nectarine Blackberry French Toast, Quinoa Kedgeree, and a Breakfast Smoothie. This last recipe is the culmination of their breakfast feats: homemade lamb sausage cooked over an open fire. Thanks for a month of inspiration and recipes, Sam and Catherine!
Lamb, Blue Cheese & Honey Sausages
These sausages would have to be my new favourite food; I call it a “Fancy Kransky.” It took a while to get the mix right, because you can really taste the mince as you go—well you can if you want I suppose, but it was worth a few failures.
This morning was perfect, so we cooked them on the rocks down the front of our place for breakfast. We served them with a fried egg and used the yolk as a sauce. They are fairly strong and it may be that not everyone wants to start the day with them, but you can always have them for tea. They are also the perfect hangover cure! — Sam & Catherine
Ingredients
1kg {2.2 lbs} of fatty lamb off-cuts
200g {7 oz} blue cheese chopped into half cm cubes
2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp ice water
1m {~3 feet} sausage skin
pepper and salt to season
1 twig of rosemary
Mince the lamb. (I used the mincing attachment for the Kitche Aid.) Mix in the honey, rosemary, pepper, salt, and mustard to the mince. Then fold through the cheese. Chill the mince until it’s quite cold, and then add the ice water. Thread the sausage skin onto you sausage maker. (Again, I used the sausage maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid.) Tie a knot in the end. Put the mince through the sausage maker and make one continuous sausage. Then roll into spirals and spear with the rosemary to hold it together. This will make about two spirals.
If you don’t have a sausage maker, just make hamburgers out of them by adding an egg to the mix and rolling in breadcrumbs.
Cook in a cast-iron skillet until cooked through and browned on the outside. Serve with eggs, sunny-side up, and toast.
For the past three weeks, we’ve been sharing delicious breakfasts from Sam and Catherine at Island Menu as part of our Guest Recipes series. So far, they have us drooling over Blueberry Cinnamon Buns, Nectarine Blackberry French Toast, and Quinoa Kedgeree. Today we’re taking a break from luxurious weekend breakfasts with a midweek breakfast recipe that you can whip up in just a few minutes.
Blackberry, Blueberry, and Raspberry Breakfast Smoothie
In Tasmania we have an abundance of fresh sweet berries available during the summer months and I like to try to make the most of them, eating them fresh just as they are, in my porridge, as sweets, and most recently blitzed up as a fresh breakfast smoothie. The beauty of berries is that you can so easily freeze them and stockpile them for the colder months. I confess, of my stockpiled fruit, I’ve already eaten quite a few …
Smoothies are great for breakfast, especially if you are a bit bored with the usual cereal! — Sam & Catherine
Ingredients
1 c milk or soymilk
2-3 heaped tbsp natural Greek yogurt
2 tsp honey (more or less to taste)
1 c frozen berries (I used a mix of blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
Sprig of mint
Put all the ingredients in a blender and process until combined.
