Peachy Keen! A Grilled Peach and Halloumi Salad!

We're serving up a crisp, scrumptious salad recipe starring grilled peaches from a top Top Chef.

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August 19, 2024 1:32 pm

Any Top Chef fan — and thus, any fan of food, honestly — worth their salt knows the great Harold Dieterle. He was crowned the show’s very first winner back in 2006, and today joins fellow Top Chef alumni Zac Young and Kristen Kish as contributors to this very newsletter! Chef Harold opened a new restaurant, Il Totano, back in May, a stunning Art Deco joint that serves Southern Italian in NYC’s West Village. Today, he’s sharing a recipe for a salty, creamy, spicy and sweet summer salad that highlights peaches, those glorious icons of late-summer produce. Even better: he grills ‘em.

Let’s face it: all salads are perfect for summer. But I love this one because of the interplay of the salty halloumi with the slightly caramelized peaches and spicy candied pecans. Best of all, it can be prepared in advance for a picnic or beach outing — though there’s something to be said for grilling the peaches in front of your guests! You can even forgo the grill pan and blacken the fruit up on a BBQ grill.

Grilled Peach and Halloumi Salad

Servings: 2, but can be doubled or tripled

Directions

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For the spiced pecans
1. Line a sheet pan with paper towels.
2. Soak the pecans in warm water for 20 minutes and drain and transfer to a bowl.
3. Add the sugar and toss to evenly coat.
4. Pour about 1.5 inches worth of oil into a Dutch oven and heat over medium-high heat and carefully add the pecans.
5. Fry for about 3 minutes, turning midway with a metal spider until golden brown.
6. Transfer to a new bowl and, while hot, toss in remaining sugar and cayenne, and season with salt and pepper.
7. Lay on the paper towel-lined sheet pan to cool.
For the vinaigrette
1. In a small bowl, whisk the almond oil, olive oil and Champagne vinegar, add chives and shallots and season generously with salt and pepper. Set aside.
For the salad
1. Heat the oil in a griddle pan or grill over medium-high heat. Add the halloumi and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Dice and set aside.
2. Halve the peach and grill cut side down until blackened, about two minutes. Cool, then roughly chop.
3. In a large salad bowl, gently add the lettuce, peaches, halloumi and spiced pecans.
4. Gently toss the salad with the vinaigrette.
5. Remove the bibb lettuce and stack the leaves on a plate.
6. Gently place the remaining ingredients on top.