The Best Peach and Goat Cheese Summer Salad

This peach and goat cheese salad is light and refreshing! It is a great appetizer for a fresh summer meal. The peaches are sweet and juicy, while the goat cheese is creamy and savory. A lovely combination of textures and flavors!

We are back with another summery peach recipe. This time with a light and refreshing salad. My family is big into salads. We would have company over, and they would leave raving about the appetizer salad. We basically became known for making delicious salads. I guess there’s worse things to be known for, right?

I feel like salads can get such a bad rap. If you don’t like salads, then you are doing it wrong. When I think of a salad, I am not just thinking of lettuce and a few veggies. Who would like that salad? A good salad has lettuce, diced up veggies so you get a bite of everything each time, a good meat, and cheese crumbled on top. Just like this roasted sweet potato and brussel sprout salad. Doesn’t that sound good?!

This peach and goat cheese salad has juicy fresh peaches, pistachios, craisins, chopped bacon, white onions, and creamy goat cheese crumbled on top of it all. What are your favorite salad combinations?

For more peach recipes, check out our peach crisp, and peach salsa. Be sure to subscribe to our blog to get more of the delicious peach recipes that will be coming out!

Why You Will Love This Peach and Goat Cheese Salad

• Light/Refreshing – A side salad to a meal, especially when used as an appetizer, should not be too heavy and filling. This salad is perfectly light and refreshing with the fresh peaches and clean ingredients.
• Textures – The textures in this salad are quite literally perfection. Soft peaches, crunchy pistachios, chewy craisins, crisp onions, crumbled bacon, and lastly, creamy goat cheese. My mouth is watering!
• Flavor – This salad is just all around delicious. The peaches are so juicy and make this salad so good. The craisins also add a fun fruitiness to it. This salad just screams Summer.

Tips To Make the Best Peach and Goat Cheese Salad

1. Try to handle the peaches as little as possible, especially if they are softer to begin with. The best thing to do is slice the whole way around following the line already made in the peach, twist very gently to separate from the seed, and cut the halves from there.
2. Chop, chop, chop! The lettuce should be chopped into bite sized pieces, as well as the bacon should be broken up into small pieces. When it comes to the onion and peaches, I love micro chopping things within in a salad, they are just more fun to eat. However, if you are going for looks, slicing the onion and peaches thinly will be better!
3. Using chilled ingredients will help this salad taste amazing and really bring out the flavors. Especially since it is a summer salad. Even chilling the plate that the ingredients go on is a good way to keep the salad chilled as it is sitting out.

Ingredients

Greens – For the bed of greens, use your favorites. I like to do a combination of different things for different textures and flavors. Some great ones are spring mix, arugula, kale, romaine lettuce, and butter lettuce.

Fresh peaches – I am a huge proponent of buying locally. If you need some reasons as to why you should buy locally, this post is a great one. I am blessed by Amish stands, so that is where I get mine.

Pistachios – These add the perfect crunch and slight saltiness to the salad. I like crushing them up a bit.

Craisins – If you are not a fan of craisins, I encourage you to still try them in this salad. I don’t love craisins, but in this salad, they go so nicely with the other ingredients!

White onions – I have seen lots of salads that use purple onion. Although, I strongly believe that white onion has just the right amount of subtle flavor while purple onion has more of a zing and spiciness to it.

Bacon – We love maple bacon over here. Although, use whatever flavor you have on hand or what you prefer! Cooking bacon in the oven is a huge game changer and will make your life so much easier. Place on aluminum foil for easy clean up.

Goat Cheese – I think goat cheese is so underrated and not used enough. It is so creamy, and it doesn’t have too strong of a flavor, so it doesn’t take over too much.

Best Dressings for Peach and Goat Cheese Salad

Simple Homemade Vinaigrette

Peach Vinaigrette

Maple Dijon Dressing

Garlic and Herb Vinaigrette

Tools You Will Need

Serving dish or bowl

Salad tongs

Cutting board

Sharp knife

How to Make Peach and Goat Cheese Salad

Start by preparing your ingredients. Chop the bacon, crush the pistachios, slice the peaches and slice the white onions.

Once ingredients are prepped, lay your bed of washed and dried greens on desired serving dish.

Sprinkle the craisins, chopped bacon, and chopped pistachios on top of the bed of greens. Followed by arranging the sliced peaches and onions on top. Lastly, crumble that creamy goat cheese on top of it all.

More From Brick House on Green

Fresh Peach Salsa

Chicken Pesto Pasta with Feta

Basil Infused Olive Oil

Peach Crisp