Grilled Peach Salad with Bacon and Balsamic Glaze

Grilled Peach Salad is proof that sweet and savory are perfect together, especially in fresh salads! This salad is filled with juicy, grilled peaches, savory bacon, salty feta, fresh arugula and spinach and topped with a super simple homemade balsamic glaze! 

 

 

Just like strawberries and basil, grilled peaches work beautifully with balsamic vinegar or balsamic glaze. The balsamic brings out the flavor of the fruits and berries even more, which is so weird but I'll take it! If you like that, you will also love this mango prosciutto salad!

 

Never make boring salads again

 

In order to avoid making boring salads, just keep these 5 elements in mind when making your salad:

 

1. Include something green, like spinach and arugula in this case
2. Something sweet, like extra juicy grilled peaches
3. You also want something crunchy, which in this case are the greens, but also the shallot onion. 
4. And something creamy, like feta cheese! 
5. No salad is complete without a dressing. This time we are topping it with a flavorful maple balsamic glaze. 

 

You can see in pretty much all my salads that I follow this guideline, although I don't think all salads need something green and crunchy, then it's more like just a side dish.

 

For example, the watermelon salad does not follow it, but this Mexican chicken salad and strawberry salad do. This grilled peaches salad is great on its own for a light lunch or dinner, or you could add some protein to make it a fuller meal. 

 

 

How to grill peaches

 

This grilled peaches recipe is based on cooking the bacon first and reserving the bacon fat for the peaches. This means you could potentially just pan fry the peaches for about 4 minutes each side, but you won't get those grill marks.

 

However, to grill them, cut them in half and remove the pit. Brush them with the reserved bacon fat and place on a hot grill. Grill for 4 minutes on each side, being careful when you turn it so it doesn't turn to mush. 

 

If you don't want to use bacon, you can use any other high-heat oil like sunflower or canola oil. Avoid oils with low smoke points like olive oil (and butter). If you want to use butter, you could just brush it on the peaches once they are done, but use another oil for grilling them. 

 

 

What more can you serve with grilled peaches

 

Grilled peaches are perfect as a side dish for a BBQ party, on top of a beautiful salad like this one or you could also make a grilled peaches dessert! Whip up some mascarpone, nuts and honey and top each halved peach with it. Easy and delicious! 

 

Swap out the grilled pineapple in this harissa chicken salad or top it on a chia pudding for breakfast. However, my favorite is this bacon and peach salad.

 

And I love to serve it with pork chops or pork loins as pork and peaches are flavor besties! 

 

 

Homemade balsamic glaze

 

You can of course use store bought balsamic glaze if that is what you have. I just wanted to let you know that it is extremely easy to make yourself, using two pantry staple ingredients: balsamic vinegar and sweetener.

 

In this case, I am making a maple balsamic glaze, but you could also use honey, brown sugar or granulated sugar. 

 

To make it you just combine balsamic vinegar and maple syrup in a small saucepan. On medium high heat, let this mixture come to a simmer and simmer for about 20 minutes or until reduced by half.

 

Stir occasionally. Set aside to cool, remember it will thicken once it cools. And this small recipe makes just about 2.5 tbsp, but it could easily be doubled, tripled - whatever! 

 

Just keep in mind that a salad needs very little balsamic glaze to make a big difference. But if you decide to make more and didn't use it all, you can easily store it in the refrigerator in a small jar with a tight lid.

 

It lasts for several months, and I always have it on hand for simple salads like this!

 

 

How to make this salad

 

Cook bacon on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, or until crisp. Turn often to evenly cook. Remove from the pan, dry on a paper towel, and then crumble the bacon. Reserve the bacon fat for the next step.

 

Just as seen in a paragraph above, to make grilled peaches you start by slicing the peaches in half, removing the pit. Place the cut side down in the bacon fat and then grill on high heat for about 4 minutes, flip, and grill for 4 more minutes.

 

You can also pan-fry in the bacon fat, but you won’t get beautiful grill marks. The flavor will still be premium.

 

 

When balsamic glaze and grilled peaches are done, the rest is just chop and assemble. Roughly chop spinach and arugula and finely slice shallot. Grate lemon zest and finely chop the fresh mint. Crumble the feta cheese. 

 

Add all the salad ingredients, apart from the peaches, into a large serving bowl or separate plates. Top with the grilled peach halves. Drizzle a little maple balsamic glaze on top. Enjoy alone as a light lunch or dinner, or with any protein like pork chops or grilled chicken for a fuller meal!

 

And for dessert, don't forget to make this delicious strawberry peach pie.

 

 

Did you like this recipe? Here are more salads I think you will like:

 

• Summer arugula strawberry salad
• Healthy pasta salad with zucchini
• Fennel grapefruit salad
• Grilled harissa chicken salad
• Tabbouleh with quinoa
• Watermelon feta salad

 

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment below or tag me @thegingerwithspice on Instagram. And don’t forget to Pin it for later! To make sure you’re never missing another recipe, please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter. As a thanks you will receive a free e-cookbook Travels Through the Seasons, with many delicious recipes from around the world that suit different seasons of the year. 

 

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