Grilled Fruit Is the Perfect Summer Treat
Photo by mccun934/Creative Commons
When the temperatures skyrocket and the thought of turning on your oven—or even a burner—is laughable, grilling may be your best option if you don’t want to resort to yet another cold, bland salad. If you’re lucky enough to live in a place where having a space large and safe enough to grill outdoors is an option, then firing up the grill on even the hottest of days shouldn’t be too much of an issue. But if you, like me, are in a balcony-less apartment, you may have to settle for a George Foreman type of situation (which is still far superior to turning on the oven, if you ask me).
Regardless of what your grill situation looks like, you’re probably most likely to pull out the grill when you’re planning on cooking meat or fish. If you’re keeping things on the lighter side, you may decide to grill tofu or veggies or even tempeh. But there’s one often-overlooked food group that you should consider when you’re grilling this summer: fruit.
Hear me out. Grilled fruit is one of summer’s greatest pleasures. Cooking your fruit helps highlight its sweetness, and the slightly smoky flavor from the grill adds a whole new element to an otherwise standard fruit salad. Let’s take a look at some of the fruits you should be throwing on the grill this summer—it might just change the way you look at your produce.
Peaches
When you’re on the hunt for grilled fruit recipes, chances are you’ll come across quite a few that include grilled peaches. If you want to take things the savory route, you can add grilled peaches to salads or use them to add some sweetness and acidity to cooked meat. Don’t like sweet stuff with your savory dishes? Use your peaches for dessert instead. They’re delicious on their own, or you can pair them with ice cream for a simple but sophisticated dessert.
To make the cooking process as easy and as painless as possible, cut your peaches in half, not in slices, before putting them on the grill. Peach slices can get slippery and difficult to handle, while peach halves will be easier to remove from the grill when they’ve achieved the preferred toastiness.