My Husband’s Trick for Saving Sad, Mealy Peaches
I don't meant to toot my own horn, but I feel pretty proud that I ended up with my husband, Matt. It was touch and go on the relationship front for a while (just ask my parents), but I finally found a great human to partner with.
Matt will 100% roll his eyes when he reads this, but he's smart, kind, funny, empathetic, helpful and a fantastic husband and father. You know what else? He's also an excellent cook. And as a longtime food editor, I don't say that about just anyone. I've sung the praises of his culinary code-cracking before, including his next-level tuna melt, roasted carrots and the juiciest, most flavorful chicken breast.
And when summer rolls around, his code-cracking continues. Matt makes great burgers and hot dogs and grilled veggies, but he also uses the grill to perk up less-than-peak produce. When life hands us subpar peaches, Matt grills them up.
Related: 5 Easy Hacks To Ripen Freshly Picked Peaches Quickly
How Grilling Saves Not-So-Great Peaches
As the weather heats up, we get excited about summer produce. There's nothing like a great ear of corn, some tender grilled zucchini, or a ripe, juicy heirloom tomato. As soon as we see peaches popping up in the supermarket, we grab some to try. Every once in a while we get a great one, which is why we keep buying more, but more often than not we've found that the average grocery store peach (at least up here in Rhode Island) is just that: average.
Even if they smell great and yield to slight pressure, they're often a little too hard, mealy, watery or just not that great. But just a couple of minutes on the grill fixes pretty much all of that. The fruit comes off the grill warm and soft and the time on the grates adds a nice rich, deep caramelized flavor to the fruit—and it just tastes peach-ier.
Related: The Easiest Way to Peel Peaches So You Can Whip Up Summer Treats
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How to Grill a Peach
You have a few options when you grill a peach. Matt's split them in half, brushed them lightly with oil and grilled them, cut side down. That's a great (and super easy) way to go and the caramelized grill marks look great against the orange flesh.
For a more hands-off approach, you can put the halved peaches in a piece of foil, add a little butter and brown sugar to the cut side of the peach, wrap it up and put it on the grill. The butter and brown sugar give you a similar but different caramel vibe as the grill marks from the previous method, but both are absolutely delicious.
How to Serve Grilled Peaches
Once the peaches come off the grill, it's a choose-you-own adventure situation. You can eat them as-is, top them with vanilla ice cream and/or caramel sauce, or chop them up for a fruit salad. If you go the straight grilled route, they can easily swing sweet or savory. Chop them up and serve alongside grilled pork chops, cut them into big pieces and toss with large cubes of toasted sourdough for a great panzanella salad, or dice them finely and spoon on top of hot or sweet grilled Italian sausages. Oh. And they're also a delightful addition to ricotta toasts.
The lesson here? With just a little bit of creativity and a tiny bit of work you can turn something that's kinda mid into something that knocks your socks off. Happy peach season, everyone!
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