Peach & blue cheese salad

Try this creamy and fruity salad - perfect for lunch or a light summer supper.

Serves 4
Prep 15 mins
NO COOK
Vegetarian

Ingredients

1/2 ciabatta loaf, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp clear honey
squeeze of lemon juice
1 bag of mixed salad leaves
handful of mint leaves, torn
4 peaches , each cut into 8 pieces
140g blue cheese or Brie, cut into chunks
100g sugar snap peas , sliced in half lengthways

Method

1. Toast the ciabatta slices and drizzle with 1 tbsp oil. Make the dressing by whisking together the remaining oil, honey and lemon juice, then season to taste. Mix all of the other ingredients together in a large bowl and toss with the dressing before serving.

327 kcalories, protein 13g, carbohydrate 31g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 7g, fibre 3g, salt 1.61 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, August 2006.

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Squashed peach & almond tarts

A melt-in-the-mouth summer treat.

Moderately easy
Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients

100g ground almonds
100g butter , softened
1 egg
50g sugar
250g (half a 500g block) puff pastry
3 peaches , halved, stoned and finely sliced

Method

1. Beat almonds, butter, egg and half the sugar in a small bowl until mixed. Roll pastry out to the thickness of a 20p piece and, using a saucer about 13cm in diameter, cut out 4 circles. Lift the circles onto a baking tray and spread each thinly with 1 tbsp of almond mixture, leaving a border. Arrange the peach slices on top in a rosette and chill for at least 10 mins before baking. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7.

2. Bake tarts on the top shelf for 10 mins, then remove from oven. Sprinkle liberally with sugar, cover with baking parchment and lay another samesized tray on the top. Flip the trays so that the tarts are upside-down. Bake for 5-10 mins more, until the pastry is crisp and the peach is sticky and caramelised. (If you don't have two baking sheets, the tarts can be cooked peach-side up for the whole cooking time.)

Nutrition per serving

672 kcalories, protein 12g, carbohydrate 44g, fat 51 g, saturated fat 20g, fibre 3g, salt 0.94 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, August 2006.

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Oriental chicken & peach salad

Give chicken a lift with oriental flavours and a peach salad.

Serves 8
Cook time 35 mins

Ingredients

2 x 1.5kg/3lb 5oz or 3 x cooked chicken , preferably free-range
4 large ripe peaches , stoned
200g mangetout , thinly shredded lengthways
6 spring onions , very finely sliced
4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
zest and juice of 2 limes
2 tbsp clear honey
2 tbsp freshly grated root ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
6 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Method

1. Remove the meat from the chicken, cut into chunky strips and place in a large mixing bowl. Cut the peaches into wedges and reserve any juice. Add to the chicken with the mangetout, spring onions and coriander.

2. Put the lime zest and juice, honey, ginger and soy sauce into a small bowl and season. Slowly whisk in the sunflower oil to form an emulsion, then whisk in the sesame oil. Toss with the salad and serve with the couscous.

Nutrition per serving

520 kcalories, protein 49g, carbohydrate 9g, fat 32 g, saturated fat 9g, fibre 2g, salt 1.05 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, August 2001.

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Peach

Sweet, juicy and fragrant, peaches are one of the most beautiful fruit around. Around the size of a tennis ball, they are covered with a velvety down, and most commonly have a red-blushed yellow skin and golden yellow flesh, apart from white peaches, which have a pink-blushed cream skin and pinky white flesh. It's possible to find flatish, disc-shaped varieties of peach, but the most common type is spherical, with a little peak (known as a 'beak') at one end. Just like nectarines, they come in either clingstone or freestone varieties - the name indicates how easily the stone is freed from the flesh.

Availibility

Late July through to September.

Choose the best

A ripe peach will have a fragrant aroma, and will be yellow around the stem. It should feel firm but will yield slightly when it's gently squeezed. Avoid any peaches that feel hard, or that have bruising or mould. Slightly underripe peaches will soften if stored at room temperature, but won't get much sweeter.

Prepare it

Following the line of the dimple, cut around the fruit with a sharp knife, then twist each half apart. Slice or chop as required. If there is too much fuzzy bloom on the skin for your taste, you can rub it off under cold water. Tough skin can be peeled off with your fingers, or drop the peach into boiling water for around 15 or more seconds then plunge immediately into cold water. The skin should then come away easily.

If you are not going to eat cut peaches straight away, brush the cut sides with lemon juice or acidulated water to prevent them going brown.

Store it

Slightly underripe nectarines can be ripened at room temperature for a day or two. They should then be kept in the fridge in a perforated bag, where they'll keep for a couple of days.

Cook it

Eat raw, as they are, or slice and add to fruit salads, pavlovas or trifles. Use to make tarts, or serve with vanilla ice cream or cream. Poach (10 minutes for whole; 4-5 for halves). Halve and roast (15-20 minutes).

Try

• Oriental chicken & peach salad
• Squashed peach & almond tarts
• Peach & blue cheese salad

Can't find it

Try nectarine.

Source
BBC Good Food

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