I have a love affair with peaches…but only in the summertime. Here in the northeast corner of the US, peaches. any other time of year are tasteless. There’s simply no substitution for the taste of a peach, bitten into and the height of their ripeness.

Needless to say, a peach in this state needs very little to enhance it’s flavor so when I made this peach salad, I naturally wanted to keep it simple so I layered them over arugula, topped them with a few sprouts and drizzled it with a light vinaigrette.

Recipe for the Vinaigrette

3/4 cups extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons of good quality honey

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

or the evergreen version

3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar, a few splashes of fresh lemon juice, honey, salt & pepper to taste

Instructions for the vinaigrette

Place all ingredients into a glass jar and shake

Add a few slices of peaches into the jar and a few leaves of lemon verbena or mint if you like.

And for this lovely green iced tea

Brew the tea, chill, add the juice of 1/2 lemon and slice up the rest; honey to sweeten and infuse with your favorite herb. I used lemon verbena, pulled off some leaves and immersed the rest…like a straw.  It was so good I drank the whole thing throughout the day. (Great with vodka too!)

And finally, the answer to the question, “What does a chef eat on a hot summer day when she doesn’t feel like cooking?”

Yep, you’re seeing this correctly…Peaches, milk and cornflakes…delicious together!

And now over to you.

Did you like these recipes? What’s your favorite, easy, no-cook summertime dish?

Leave a comment below!