This Grilled Apricot Salad is packed with fresh leafy greens, walnuts, goat cheese and honey. Sweet seasonal grilled fruit – peaches, plums, or apricots – tops it off!
How to Make this Grilled Apricot Salad with Watercress
Why watercress?
As a powerhouse leafy vegetable, watercress ranks at the very top of the list for nutrient density (ratio of nutrients to calories). I had never used it before and I kept seeing it on restaurant menus, so I decided to give it a try.
Watercress has a little bit of a peppery flavor. That peppery flavor is perfect when mixed with the sweet grilled fruit + honey in this Grilled Apricot Salad!
+You can substitute spinach, kale or whatever salad greens you’d like to in this recipe.
How to Make a Balsamic Reduction Dressing
This Grilled Apricot Salad is dressed with a rich balsamic reduction sauce. It’s a key ingredient that pairs well with the goat cheese and fruit.
- Take 1 cup of inexpensive balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Turn down the heat so that boil reduces to a simmer. Stir occasionally and allow to simmer until the vinegar has reduced by at least half for a thin reduction or more if you’d like a syrupy consistency. Just don’t turn up the heat.
- Keep it low for about 15 min – keeping in mind it will thicken more as it cools. Keep stored in the refrigerator until ready to use. The storage life is long – so you can save it for future recipes that use balsamic reduction.
Other delicious watercress salad ideas:
The Magic of Grilled Fruit
If you’ve never tried grilling apricots, peaches or plums you definitely need too! They are so delicious – just like dessert. And you don’t need to put them on a big grill – just use a stovetop griddle.
In a grilled fruit salad, the fruit is warm and juicy when mixed with salad greens, making it an extra delicious salad!
+Grilled fruit also makes an amazing snack drizzled with a little honey. Imagine a summer breakfast will grilled peaches, a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of this almond flax granola recipe.
A fresh and light grilled apricot salad for hot summer days! Goat Cheese, Honey and Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.
- 2 cups cooked grains farro, wheatberries, freekah, brown rice, etc
- 4 fresh apricots and/or peaches cut in half and grilled
- 1 cup walnuts toasted and chopped
- 4 cups fresh leafy greens watercress, spinach, kale
- 4 oz goat cheese crumbled
- 2 tbsp honey more to taste
- 4 tbsp balsamic reduction more to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
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Cook grains per package instructions.
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Prepare balsamic reduction sauce if you don't already have on hand. (see notes in blog post)
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While grains and/or balsamic reduction are cooking, wash/prep your greens and toast your walnuts (350 degrees in the oven for approx. 8 min or in a pan on the stovetop over medium heat).
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About 10 minutes before you're ready to eat, cut apricots/peaches in half and put cut side down on stovetop grill. Grill on medium until juicy and grill marks appear on the cut side. Flip them over on the other side for just a minute or two to warm. This takes about 8 min.
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Combine everything in a bowl: grains, greens, fruit, cheese and nuts.
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Drizzle with balsamic reduction and honey to taste. Season with salt and pepper.
More summer fruit recipes to try
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