Stone fruit salad with goat cheese

The best of summer's farmers markets deserve a place in this stone fruit salad. Grab the juiciest looking peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, and even the crosses like pluots and plumcots.

Mix them up with some goat cheese, a tender salad green (like arugula), some almonds (for a soft crunch) and a tart blackberry dressing that only takes 5 minutes to make.

Jump to:

• Build flavor with layers
• Which stone fruit to use
• Goat cheese and other options
• Use tender salad greens like arugula or butter lettuce
• Make a quick blackberry vinaigrette
• A side salad for summer grilling
• Recipe
• More stone fruit recipes

Build flavor with layers

Stone fruits are usually very sweet with only a hint of acidity, especially peaches. That means the salad needs some extra acidity, fat, and bitterness for balance.

• Goat cheese adds tang
• Avocado brings a creamy fat
• Blackberry vinaigrette adds tartness
• Arugula adds a hint of bitterness and peppery flavor

Meanwhile, almonds add an complimentary marzipan flavor (did you know almonds and stone fruit are related, they are all in the prunus family).

Which stone fruit to use

Any and all of the stone fruits are great in this salad, including cherries (which aren't pictured).

Pick the ones that smell the most fragrant at the farmers market or grocery store. The smell is the best sign they will be flavorful, even more than the gentle-squeeze test.

Stone fruit	Flavor	Texture
Peach	Very sweet, low acid, floral, honey	Very juicy & soft
Nectarine	Sweet, medium acid, tangy and floral	Juicy & firm
Apricot	Sweet-tart balance, very floral	Less juicy, soft
Plum	More tart than sweet, wine-like, bitter skin	Juicy & soft
Cherry	Sweet-tart balance	Firm

For a more in-depth look at each type of stone fruit, check out these seasonal guides: peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, plumcots & pluots, and cherries.

Peaches are the sweetest option

Peaches taste the sweetest out of all of the stone fruits, thanks to their low acidity. White peaches are even sweeter.

The flavor is very floral and honey-like and they are the juiciest stone fruit when picked ripe.

You don't need to peel them for this salad, as long as you don't mind the fuzzy skin.

Nectarines are fuzzless peaches

It's true - nectarines are a genetic variant of a peach that happens to have smooth skin. That's why their flavor is so similar. They are just slightly less juicy than peaches, and a tad more firm.

Typically, nectarines are slightly more acidic than peaches (just like some varieties of peaches are more or less acidic).

Apricots taste very floral

Apricots have the most floral and honey-like flavor of all the stone fruits with a light acidity. They tend to be less juicy, but still tender.

Their skin is fuzzy, but also doesn't need to be peeled.

Plums are more tart than sweet

Plums are more acidic than the other stone fruits, often making you pucker. The flavor is more dynamic, often described as wine-like. I suppose that's why plum wine is a thing.

Plums don't need to be peeled either, but the skin can taste bitter or tannic. Unless those flavors bother you, they actually add a nice balance with the other stone fruit in the salad.

There are a few different types of plums to keep an eye out for:

• Black plums have dark red skin and red interior flesh (as shown in my stone fruit salad photos) - these tend to be the sweetest variety
• Red plums have red skin and a yellow interior with a sour-sweet flavor
• Yellow plums have yellow skin and a yellow interior for a sweet flavor with a tart finish
• Pluots, plumcots, and apriums are all plum-apricot crosses

Goat cheese and other options

Goat cheese and peaches are a classic pairing, but it also works well with all of the stone fruit.

It's similar to feta but a little more creamy and tangy. You can get a plain goat cheese, or one with added herbs. Trader Joe's has a blueberry goat cheese that is really fun in this salad too.

If you don't like goat cheese, feta is a great substitute and burrata would work as well.

Use tender salad greens like arugula or butter lettuce

I like a softer salad green to go with the stone fruit. Crunchier salad greens like iceberg and romaine add too much texture for the soft fruits to stand up to.

Arugula is my go-to for this salad since the peppery flavor adds some depth. But there are a lot of options to choose from:

• Arugula: mustard-bite and slight bitterness
• Butter lettuce: soft, neutral flavor
• Spring greens: soft, mixed bitter and sweet flavors
• Spinach: soft and grassy

Make a quick blackberry vinaigrette

The blackberry vinaigrette takes 5 minutes to make.

You just need to add blackberries to a blender to puree them. Run it through a fine mesh strainer. Then add chopped basil, honey, and vinegar. Slowly add in the olive oil while whisking, or shake it in a mason jar.

Oil dilutes the flavor

I kept the oil to a minimum for this dressing because it quickly dilutes the blackberry flavor. If the dressing tastes too tart or too bitter, add more oil to mellow it out.

A side salad for summer grilling

This stone fruit salad is a great side for grilled meats, especially beef steaks, burgers, and pork.

The sweet stone fruit balances the rich, charred meats, cutting through their fat and saltiness.

Recipe

More stone fruit recipes

There are a lot of stone fruit salad variations. Here's a few I picked out that I want to make myself!

• A salad with peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, red onions, mint, and basil from What's Gaby Cooking
• Stone fruit salad with farro, fennel, and mint from Archery Summit
• Stone fruit salad with peppers, cucumbers, and radishes from Howe We Live
• Stone fruit, burrata, and prosciutto salad from Lindsey Eats

As for other stone fruit recipes, when peaches are in season, I always add them to some pan-seared pork chops.

This grilled nectarine & prosciutto salad from The Food Union is another great option. Stone fruits that are slightly underripe work better on the grill - their firmer flesh holds up better and don't drip juice all over.

You can also take inspiration from the recipe and add prosciutto to my recipe (I've done it, and of course it's excellent). Doing so will add 50-100 calories and salty richness, so you might want to cut back on the goat cheese. Also, if you add prosciutto and want to pair with wine, the bubbles in sparkling wine work to balance fat and salt. (Try a sparkling Rose).

More salad recipes