Rocket / Arugula | RecipeTin Eats

Peach Salad

Nagi — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 03:45:11 +0000

This Peach Salad is a modern Italian classic that makes the best of ripe, juicy peach bounties of the summer. The spectrum of flavours and textures here is simply perfection: Sweet peaches, peppery rocket/arugula, salty prosciutto, milky mozzarella and a zesty lemon dressing to bring the this merry band of Italian ingredients together (the dressing is the drummer, I guess?😂)

Welcome back to the inaugural Holiday Salad Marathon, we’re on Day 6 and it’s PEACH Season so let’s make the most of it!

Peach Salad

Peach season is short and sweet, so when it lands, we should get our fill with gusto! Here in Australia, in my opinion peaches can be a bit hit and miss, so when you get your hands on a good lot, buy up!

While we all love to devour them as whole fruit, there’s a whole world of other ways to use peaches to explore such as this Italian Peach Salad. Simple and classic, it makes the most of peaches when they’re at their peak while brining some Italian flair to your table!

With the prosciutto and mozzarella adding protein heft, this salad can also be substantial enough to stand in as a light lunch. Just increase the portion sizes.

What goes in Peach Salad

The one and only rule of thumb: If you can’t get juicy, ripe peaches, don’t make this salad!! It kind of defeats the purpose. This salad demands great peaches (if not to justify the expense for the prosciutto and mozzarella!)

Peaches – Yellow are best if you can get them because the bright colour really pops against the other colours in this salad! However, white peaches are delicious as we all know, and work just as well from a flavour perspective. Nectarines are also just as good here;
Rocket/arugula – The peppery, bitey leaves are a sensational match with super sweet juicy peaches, both flavour and visually. Green fluffage is always a good thing to add texture into salads!
Buffalo/cow’s milk mozzarella – Nothing like the shredded yellow stuff we use on everyday pizza, fresh mozzarella is an entirely different product. This cheese is pure white in colour, and comes packed in water or whey in tubs. The taste is milky, moist and creamy. Fresh mozzarella made from buffalo milk is widely regarded as the richest and finest. But if you can’t find it cow’s milk mozzarella (called fiore di latte) is perfectly fine and also a little cheaper. Rather than cutting the cheese ball, just tear it apart gently with your fingers. If neither of these cheeses are accessible, try bocconcini (normal or cherry) as an alternative – it’ll still be great!;
Prosciutto – Get paper-thin, freshly-shaved slices of this Italian cured meat rather than the packets if you can. They are more moist and buttery, which is exactly what we want! Yes it’s expensive by the kilo/pound, but we need only 4 thin slices here, essentially 1 per person – around 70g/2 oz in total. Alternative: Jamon serrano, which is the Spanish sister of prosciutto cured in a similar way.

Lemon Dressing

And here’s what you need for the Lemon Dressing. We don’t need much – we definitely do not want to overpower the flavours in this salad with the dressing!

The assembly is completely effortless:

Shake Dressing ingredients in a jar;
Cut peaches into quarters or into 6 wedges if they are extra large;
Toss the rocket/arugula in a little dressing (we want them coated with a little dressing of their own) and scatter in a platter along with hand torn chunks of mozzarella;
Place peaches around, nestling them into the rocket;
Drape the prosciutto onto the platter;
Drizzle with remaining dressing!

The idea with this salad is that each person gets one piece of prosciutto and you eat a bit with each forkful of peach/rocket/mozzarella. So you’ll want to offer a knife along with the fork for this salad. Really, try to get a bit of everything into your mouth – the combination is just sublime (I hate using that word but here, no other quite captures it!)

Serve this Peach Salad with any Western foods – particularly Italian of course – throughout summer. Else it has the heft to make a great appetiser, or a light meal as mentioned earlier. Whatever you choose, make the most of that short, sweet peach season. This salad is a stellar flavour combination that’s the ultimate expression of warm weather, good company and beautiful produce! – Nagi x

PS. Since posting this, I’ve created a variation of this salad with feta and a poppyseed dressing – check it out!

What is the Holiday Salad Marathon?

This is my inaugural Christmas recipe countdown where I am sharing 30 salad recipes in a row until Christmas Eve – something completely different to people’s usual baking countdowns!

These salads are in addition to my regular 3 new recipes a week. Because aren’t you bored of the usual tomato-cucumber-lettuce garden salad routine??

Click here to see all the Holiday Salad Marathon recipes to date, or sign up for instant updates and you’ll receive a free email alert whenever I publish a new salad! 🙂

Peach Salad

This is a classic Peach Salad, simple as it is supposed to be, intended to make the most of juicy sweet peaches when they are in season! It's a magical summer salad combination – sweet peaches, salty prosciutto, creamy buffalo mozzarella and the pepper rocket/arugula.

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature for the best eating experience.

Course Side Salad

Cuisine Italian

Keyword peach salad, Summer Salad

Prep Time 10

Servings

Calories 230cal

Author Nagi

Ingredients

Salad:

3 small peaches or 2 large peaches
4 cups loosely packed rocket/arugula
150g/5oz ball buffalo or cow’s milk mozzarella (1 ball, ok it slightly less or more)
4 slices prosciutto (or jamon serrano, about 70g/2.5 oz; for other subs see Note 1)

Dressing:

1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
4 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Instructions

Cut peach: Halve peaches. Remove seed. Cut each half into half again. If your peaches are really large, cut each half into thirds.
Dressing: Combined dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well.
Toss rocket in ~2 tbsp of dressing.
Mozzarella: Tear mozzarella into pieces.
Assemble: Arrange rocket, peaches, mozzarella on a large plate or platter. Drape prosciutto around salad. Drizzle remaining oil over the salad. Serve!

Notes

1. Other cold cuts you can substitute: thinly sliced pancetta, coppa/capocollo, bresaola. For a non-meat option, sliced marinated artichokes are excellent in this salad.

Nutrition

Life of Dozer

When a friend brought round a freshly caught lobster, and Dozer’s first though was lobster sashimi, yay!! (His second thought was new toy for me??! Yep, that lobster was still alive and wriggling around!)

The post Peach Salad appeared first on RecipeTin Eats.

Rocket Salad with Balsamic Dressing and Shaved Parmesan

Nagi — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 05:03:55 +0000

Rocket Salad with Balsamic Dressing and shaved parmesan is a classic side salad that you often see on restaurant menus. The peppery, fresh flavour of rocket (arugula) makes it a great side for rich or carb-heavy mains, as well as proteins. It’s super quick to make, and probably my most-made side salad.

Bonus super quick version made with balsamic glaze also included!

Rocket Salad with Balsamic Dressing

This is a very classic side salad that you’ll find on the menu of fine dining restaurants and local bistros. It goes with virtually any Western dish, and is extremely quick to make:

Balsamic Dressing made with just extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper;
Rocket lettuce – called arugula in the US & Canada, it’s got a great peppery fresh flavour; and
Shaved parmesan – just use a potato peeler!

Super quick, classic side salad that requires NO CHOPPING!

What does rocket taste like?

Rocket – called arugula in the US and Canada – is a type of lettuce which has a slight peppery flavour which makes it really fresh with a great bite so it pairs really well with meat heavy mains like roasts, and carb heavy dishes like pasta dishes.

How to make Rocket Salad

Here’s how to make it. It’s very quick and requires zero chopping – BONUS!

ALTERNATIVE: Balsamic Glaze

The alternative way to make Rocket Salad is to use a Balsamic Glaze rather than mixing up a Balsamic Dressing.

This is even faster to make because all you do is drizzle olive oil on the rocket, toss, drizzle with a bit of balsamic glaze, then shave over parmesan. Don’t try to toss the salad in the glaze, it’s too thick, just serve it with drizzles of balsamic over it.

Rocket Salad with Balsamic Glaze takes 90 seconds FLAT to make!

Which Rocket Salad is better?

The Balsamic Dressing version is the classic way to make it, made “properly” because the rocket leaves are properly tossed in Balsamic Dressing.

The Balsamic Glaze version has more intense flavour pops when you hit a drizzle of balsamic glaze. It’s also faster to make – literally 90 seconds of effort. For everyday purposes, I make this Balsamic Glaze version more often! – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

Rocket Salad with Balsamic Dressing and Shaved Parmesan

Recipe video above. A classic side salad that makes an appearance on fine dining restaurants and local bistros! It goes with virtually every Western dish, with the pepper flavour of rocket lettuce making it ideal to pair with rich meat-heavy or carb heavy mains like pastas and roasts.

Course Side Salad

Cuisine Western

Keyword Arugula salad, Rocket salad

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings

Calories 105cal

Author Nagi

Ingredients

150g / 5 oz rocket / arugula (4 big handfuls)
15g / 0.5oz parmesan , shaved finely using vegetable peeler

Balsamic Dressing:

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper

Instructions

Shake Balsamic Dressing in jar.
Place rocket in a bowl, drizzle with Dressing then toss.
Transfer to serving bowl. Shave over parmesan. Serve immediately.

Notes

Balsamic Glaze Option: Just drizzle rocket with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss. Then drizzle with about 2 tsp balsamic glaze. Transfer to serving bowl, shave over parmesan.

This version has great little intense pops of flavour against the fresh rocket!

Nutrition

Life of Dozer

The best sight to wake up to every morning!

The post Rocket Salad with Balsamic Dressing and Shaved Parmesan appeared first on RecipeTin Eats.

Rocket (Arugula), Beetroot, Walnuts and Feta w/Balsamic Dressing

Nagi — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 02:13:07 +0000

Wikipedia says: “A “Throw Together Salad” is a salad that can be made largely by combining together ingredients that require little to no chopping.”

I’m joking!! But if there were a definition of a Throw Together Salad, that’s what it would be!

For a quick-fix-meals blog, I have no idea why it took me this long to post a Throw Together Salad. Rest assured this will be rectified in the coming weeks as I intend to share a series of Throw Together Salads.

A Throw Together Salad is exactly what it sounds like – a salad that is largely “thrown together”, without the need for messy chopping. Well, I can think of only a couple of salads that require absolutely zero chopping, so I’m bending the rules a little bit so my Throw Together Salads are salads that require very little chopping.

“This is an elegant salad that’s not only fast, but also really cheap to make.”

This one is a classic flavour combination: Rocket (Arugula) with Beetroot, Feta, Walnut and a Honey Balsamic Dressing. It’s often made with goats cheese, but that is much more expensive than feta (at least, it is here in Australia) and I find that for a salad where you just scatter over a crumbling of cheese, there’s really no need to use goats cheese. In fact, I bet most people wouldn’t know the difference, especially if you use Danish Feta, the texture of which is practically the same as goats cheese but it costs a fraction of the price. You can get Danish Feta at major supermarkets in Australia at the deli counter for around $10/kg ($5/lb). You only need about 70g/2oz to make a side salad for 4.

The slightly peppery flavour of the rocket lettuce matches so well with the sweetness of beetroot, the creamy tang of the feta and warm crunch of the walnut. And the balsamic dressing is the perfect match for this salad, with it’s dark golden syrupy consistency that clings to the rocket leaves and gets soaked up by the feta.

The scattering of walnuts really takes this to the next level, and you only need a few tablespoons. At my local fruit & veg store (for those that live in Australia – Harris Farms!), you can buy walnuts by weight so it literally cost me less than a dollar for a small handful.

“You don’t need to use expensive balsamic vinegar to make a great dressing. Just add honey.”

There’s no need to use expensive balsamic either. The secret to making a great syrupy salad dressing using any balsamic is to add honey. It not only thickens the dressing but it adds warmth to the flavour that you can’t get using just sugar.

And lastly, my time saving tip is to buy canned baby beetroots. If you are lucky enough to open the can and find that they are in fact baby beetroots, then you don’t even need to cut them. But I opened the can today to find that they were rather large baby so I cut them into quarters.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe! Super simple.

Throw Together Salad #1: Rocket (Arugula), Beetroot, Walnuts and Feta w/Balsamic Dressing

The first in a series of Throw Together Salads that require little to no chopping. Budget friendly and quick to make! Serves 4 as a side or 2 as a light lunch.

Course Salad

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings

Calories 205cal

Author Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Ingredients

250 g / 8 oz canned baby beetroot , halved or quartered if they are large
120 g / 4 oz baby rocket (arugula) leaves
60 g feta (preferably Danish, otherwise Greek), or goats cheese
3 tbsp walnuts , lightly crushed with your fingers

Dressing

2 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (ordinary, not aged or glazed)
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper

Instructions

Combine the Dressing ingredients in a jar, and shake well. You might need a spoon to break up the honey to mix it in properly. Adjust salt to your taste.
Place rocket lettuce in a serving bowl.
Scatter over beetroot. No need to toss - because of the weight, it should disperse throughout fairly well.
Crumble over the feta and scatter with walnuts.
Drizzle over dressing and serve.

Notes

1. The dressing can be made up to 3 days in advance. Store it in the fridge and bring back to room temperature before using, making sure to shake well.

2. If you don't have walnuts, you can use other nuts like cashews, almonds or even sunflower seeds. The nuts add texture which is partly what makes this salad so great.

3. Nutrition per serving.

Nutrition

SaveSave

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