3 Recipes To Make the Most Out of Your Peaches

There is a peach tree growing out of the patch of grass outside the apartment complex. When the air gets hot, the fruit blooms.

Context and the appreciation of context can be a lost art when it comes to food. Knowing when and where and how a food is grown honors it — savoring sweet stonefruit in the summer and roasting hearty tubers when it gets cold. 

Beyond the many reasons to choose seasonal produce, farming seasonally, via cover cropping, consistently introduces new organic matter in the soil it’s planted in, making the ecosystem more biodiverse. Everything exists within a larger system. Growing, cooking, and eating food in its season is being respectful of the food we eat. 

Peaches: How Do You Pick the Right One?

This month we are celebrating the peach. Peak in the summertime, peaches are stone fruits, closely related to apricots, plums, cherries, and almonds. Originating from China, the peach is beloved around the world. Cobblers, smoothies, lassis; grilled, juiced, or raw — peaches are as adaptable as they are delicious. 

• When should I pick a peach? Peaches are in season from May to September. At the beginning of the season, more of the peach sticks to its pit; these are called clingstones. Toward the latter half of the season, the peaches plump up, allowing the fruit to disconnect freely from the pit — aptly named freestones. Clingstones are wonderful for canning and preserving their shape. Freestones have the slight edge in sweetness. 
• How do you pick the right peach? A ripe peach gives away its sweetness before we even bite into it. The aroma is slight yet sweet. The flesh is soft yet firm, the shape round. Look for a soft yellow glow, a textured patterning. A deep red blushing develops on the side that faces the sun.
• How should I store my peaches? When peaches are not yet ripe, they can be left outside at room temperature until they feel ripe. Once ready, eat immediately or store them in the fridge to prevent further ripening. Freezing cut peaches preserves their flavor, perfect for cooking and baking. 
• What should a peach taste like? A good peach tastes like the memory of a good summer: sweet in a way that begs repeat. Maybe a hint of tartness that complicates it; a tinge of bitterness at its end, near the pit. 
• What tastes delicious with peaches? Flavor combinations vary wildly with the peach. At its most basic, the peach loves dairy and dairy-adjacent flavors (think peaches and cream). Yogurts do wonders with peaches. Bumping up the acidity with a peach is a great way to highlight its sweetness. Lighter herbs like basil, mint, and rosemary complement the peach well. Warmer spices like cinnamon and ginger do, too. A great way to get flavor out of a peach is by caramelizing it; grilling peaches does that, as well as creates depth with smoky flavors. 

While a peach is delicious on its own, these are three recipes that highlight the many forms a peach can take — from savory to sweet, from breakfast to dessert. 

Overnight Chia Seed Pudding With Frozen, Grated Peach

This breakfast starts the night before. When a peach is frozen, it’s able to be grated and shaved. The fruit becomes much lighter, expressing its flavor as it melts. We pair this with a creamy, vegan chia pudding and toasted nuts — both complementing the peach and adding protein to make this a satisfying breakfast. 

Yield: 4 servings
Active time: 5 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes or up to overnight

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons chia seeds
13.5 oz can coconut milk 
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup 
1 peach

Optional toppings:

Toasted almonds
Fresh peaches
Granola
Coconut chips

Instructions:

The night before, add the chia seeds, coconut milk, and maple syrup into a mason jar and stir until well combined. Close the lid and place in the fridge. At the same time, place a whole peach into the freezer. 

The morning of, take the chia seed pudding out of the fridge and top with toasted almonds or any of our other recommended toppings. 

Using a microplane or grater, shave the peach over the pudding. Serve immediately. 

Peach & Prosciutto Salad With Burrata

This salad is a lesson in harmonization. The cut fruit soaks in the vinaigrette, balancing out the richness of the prosciutto and burrata. The bitter, light arugula and cracks of black pepper round out the rest of the dish. This is a great complement to heavier, protein-forward meals. 

Yield: 3-4 servings
Active time: 5 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 ball burrata 
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 
1 tablespoon dijon mustard 
½ tablespoon honey
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil 
3-4 peaches, sliced
A clamshell of arugula (approximately 5 oz)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

To a glass jar or a deli container, add in red wine vinegar, dijon, honey, and olive oil, then shake until the oil has fully emulsified with the other liquids. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Add the sliced peaches into a large bowl with half of the dressing, and toss. Let the fruit sit in the vinaigrette for five to ten minutes.

To serve, create a bed with the arugula and nestle peaches and burrata throughout. Drizzle the reserved dressing, if desired. Add several cracks of fresh black pepper.  

Peach Cornbread Coffee Cake

Borrowing cues from desserts like cornbread and cobbler, this coffee cake is inspired by the peach’s role in southern cooking. Warming spices like cinnamon waltz beautifully with the fruit’s natural sweetness, adding complexity. The brown butter cornmeal topping is optional, but the toasty, crunchy contrast it provides to the rest of the cake feels essential (to us anyways). 

Yield: 6-8 servings
Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

⅔ cup cornmeal 
1 ½ cup flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda 
½ teaspoon kosher salt 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1 ¼ cup sugar 
2 large eggs
⅓ cup sour cream
1 cup milk 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
½ cup sunflower oil, plus more for greasing the pan 

2 peaches, sliced thin

Instructions:

With the oven preheating to 350° F, grease an 8-inch cake pan with sunflower oil. Line the pan with parchment paper. 

In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients: the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and ground cinnamon. Whisk thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: sugar, eggs, sour cream, milk, vanilla extract, and sunflower oil.

Add your wet ingredients into the dries, and stir. Stop stirring once all the bits of visible flour disappear. 

To assemble, begin by placing the sliced peaches in one layer across the bottom of the pan. Pour the batter on top of the fruit and bake for forty five minutes. Serve immediately. 

An Optional, but Recommended Topping:

⅓ cup cornmeal 
¼ cup panko
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon coconut sugar 
½ teaspoon salt 

In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the cornmeal and panko. Remove when the mix becomes fragrant and the color changes into a golden brown. Set this aside in a medium-sized bowl.  

In the same pan, turn the heat down to medium-low and add in the butter. Brown the butter slowly; carefully watch for the milk solids to caramelize, note when the smell turns nutty. Immediately remove from heat.  

Add the browned butter, sugar, and salt to the cornmeal panko mixture and toss. 

As Nature Intended 

People from around the community swarm toward the peaches, beholding the pink, yellow, orange gemstones swollen from the brown branches. Leaves sprout and bugs crawl around the bark; smelling the sweetness of the budding fruit, a quiet commotion begins. They have all come to pick peaches.

Some tote bags, some grab as many as they can, stowing the fruit in their arms, running off, careful to not drop any of it. Peaches belong to the summertime. At their peak ripeness, in its true season, the fruit produces a kind of sweetness that defies any artificial additive or flavor.

Recipes by Abigail Park

Photos by Elisha Knight

Additional research by Lina Kamb