This fresh and flavorful summer salad is made with juicy peaches, luscious avocado, lemon zest and juice, olive oil, and chopped chives. Serve it as a side dish with grilled fish or chicken or just eat it straight up with a spoon!
The fresh peaches this summer have been more juicy and sweet than I can remember, so I’ve been adding them to my favorite breakfast combo of Greek yogurt and granola. Today, I decided to change things up by adding diced peaches to a summer salad. And since I also had a gorgeous tomato on my kitchen counter and a perfectly ripe Mexican mango (sent to me compliments of the Mango Board), I created a second salad with some fresh basil from my garden.
I love cutting basil into ribbons (a technique called, chiffonade), because kids get a kick out of the shape. You can also ask your kids to help you rip the basil into small pieces, and add it that way.
My toss-together tomato salad is made with 1 diced tomato, a diced mango, basil ribbons, EVOO, lemon juice, and kosher salt and pepper.
My sister Amy is visiting me this week on Nantucket with her friends Miriam, George, and Mike. Mike runs the restaurants at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, so I invited him to assemble the salads with me. Hey, we had to eat lunch anyway!
As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for most of his career, Mike has seen a shift in kids’ palates and says they’re definitely becoming more adventurous eaters. And we agree that taking kids out to eat is a great way to introduce them to new tastes and textures.

- 2 ripe peaches, cut into ¾-inch dice
- 1 large avocado, peeled and cut into ¾-inch dice
- Zest of half a lemon
- Juice of half a lemon
- Chopped chives, optional
- Chopped cilantro, optional
- 1 to 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Place the peaches, avocado, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil in a bowl and stir to combine. Add a few chopped chives and a few tablespoons of chopped or torn cilantro as desired, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
What are your favorite ways to eat peaches and mangos?
I created a third recipe this week using fresh beet greens.
After roasting and devouring a bunch of golden beets, I trimmed the beet greens the next day and sliced them into thin strips. I then used the greens in a salad with diced tomato, basil ribbons, diced avocado, diced mango, and a dressing made with lemon juice, lemon zest, EVOO, kosher salt, and black pepper. I topped the salad with nigella seeds.
This sounds so yummy! Definitely adding it to my list!
Enjoy! I could eat this salad every day when peaches are in season!
These sound yummy but how would you serve them? On a bed of lettuce? As a side dish maybe of chicken? Just trying to figure out how to build a meal out of them.