Peach and Goat Cheese Salad with Ham and Walnuts

This peach and goat cheese salad is the perfect summer lunch, quick pickled peaches, aged goat cheese, great ham, walnuts & griddled bread.

Ham and Cheese Salad with a Twist.

If adventures in North African/Persian food defined my winter. Then my summer has been all about pickles and salads.

This ham, pickled peaches and goats cheese salad follows on from the likes of my smoked mackerel salad with apple and bacon and Thai Beef Salad in this season’s culinary ramblings.

Growing up salads always seemed to be a series of incoherent ingredients that were just thrown together.

Maybe if you were lucky they were dressed in some form of unrelated dressing.

But building the perfect salad is actually really easy!

Everything here is meant to go together, the salty ham and acidic goats cheese are all about complementing those pickled peaches.

The earthy walnuts and grilled ciabatta bread add both texture and substance to the meal.

It is all rounded out with the wonderfully peppery rocket or arugula and a fantastic dressing featuring peach juice.

How To Make Quick Pickled Peaches.

For some strange reason, I find pickling fruit does not happen very often.

Although pickled cherries are very popular here in Hungary.

The process is incredibly simple and pretty much like all other pickles.

You need some sugar and some vinegar and some salt.

For this pickled peaches recipe, I went with white wine vinegar and plain old sugar.

But you can use any vinegar and any sugar.

For recipes like this ham and cheese salad I like quick pickles, so heat up your liquid and then pour it over and let it sit. The longer it sits the stronger the pickle.

It is a process I use in both my pickled cucumber and pickled daikon recipes.

Frequently Asked Questions.

What is aged goats cheese?

Most of us know goat cheese as the soft and spreadable Chevre, but you can also get aged goats cheese.

As with all cheeses the process of aging drives of moisture and creates a firmer texture.

It is made in many countries around Europe, the Spanish have a variety called Garrotxa and us Brits have the whimsically named Ticklemore.

The Dutch even have an aged Goats cheese gouda that is spectacular.

I used some Ticklemoor, it also appears in my Pesto Spaghetti with peas recipe.

Can I use soft goats cheese?

Yes, it works wonderfully in this salad although the flavour is a little milder than the aged cheese.

Can I pickle the peaches in advance?

I would not because they will take on way too much of a pickle flavour. I would limit it to an hour at the very most.

Can I use any type of ham?

Yes! Do not focus too much on Parma ham, the world is littered with great cured pork products.

Black Forest ham from Germany and Serrano ham would work really well. Jambon de Bayonne from France or Wiltshire Cured ham from the UK would also be superb.