Oregold Peaches Quinoa Salad

This Oregold Peaches Quinoa Salad is a delicious salad for any spring or summer party, or a great potluck dish! Double the recipe, because it goes fast!

I always love an orchard tour, especially when you see the luscious fruit just hanging there, ripe and ready for picking. I recently toured the Harry & David’s Royal Crest Orchard with Matt Borman, Director of Orchards, just as the  Oregold Peaches were hanging on the trees, ready for picking. So pretty!

I get giddy when I walk through an orchard, when the fruit is ripe, because I know what comes next!

What comes next is great food! Like this

Check out the video below – because this may just become your new favorite summer salad!

Not only does our family enjoy cobbler, peach jam, and the many peach desserts (shortcake, galette, pavlova, homemade ice cream), this time we experimented with a delicious Oregold Peaches Quinoa Salad. We’ve also made salsa, chutney, bruschetta, and bean dips with Oregold Peaches.

Before I share this Oregold Peaches Quinoa Salad recipe, here are some facts about Harry & David’s Oregold Peaches that I found fascinating:

-Harvesting these quality peaches goes from late July to late August, which means we’re in the prime harvesting time right now!

-There are 42 harvesters on 55 acres, solely working on peaches.

-Each peach is hand-picked once the color and size is perfect.

-Taking it a step further, here are some FUN facts about the orchard:

-Their harvest crews have to pass a color blind test so they can distinguish the right color of yellow and not green.

-Supervisors and crew leaders will call out “only the best color and size, like a melon or an egg yolk.” One crew leader who is an Oregon Duck fan says “like the yellow of the duck.” He’s not very popular with the Beaver fans. :)

-During the day, fruit is tested for sugar and maturity in the field to make sure theharvesters are picking only the ripest fruit.

-The harvesters will harvest over 400 tons of fruit before the peach season is over, which translates to around 400,000 pieces of fruit.

That’s a lot of peaches. And I’m happy I live here in the Rogue Valley, because we get to eat peaches every day all day!

If we want to.

Oregold Peaches Quinoa Salad

Our family was barbecuing last week and I whipped up this simple quinoa salad. We’ve been cooking with quinoa for years. I cook it in bulk in our rice cooker and store in the fridge so we have it available for salads, eggs (our boys love to add to their scrambled eggs), and Mexican dishes.

It’s a lovely grain, so subtle, yet so full of many options in how to cook with it. My friend, Ali, from Gimme Some Oven, has a great tutorial on how to cook quinoa, if you’re not familiar with it.

Similar to this recipe, where I used currants, this time I’m using dried blueberries and fresh  Oregold Peaches.

A summer salad for entertaining can’t get any easier, fresher, and crowd-friendly. And who doesn’t love a fresh peach?

What’s your favorite way to cook with a peach, other than just eating it fresh?

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Get the Recipe:

Oregold Peaches Quinoa Salad

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Total Time: 15 minutes mins

Yield: 8

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Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• ¼ cup chopped parsley
• ¼ cup lime juice
• 1 tsp. agave nectar or honey
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• ½ cup olive oil
• 3 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
• 2 fresh Oregold Peaches, cut into chunks
• ½ cup dried wild blueberries
• ½ cup spicy pecans, chopped
• ½ cup diced carrots
• ½ cup diced celery
• ½ cup diced cucumber
• ½ cup diced red pepper
• ¼ cup chopped scallions
• ¼ cup red onion, diced

Instructions

 

• Mix the first 5 ingredients in a bowl; set aside.
• Add the other ingredients together in a larger bowl.
• Mix in the dressing. Garnish with parsley. Serve.

Cuisine: American

Course: Salad

Author: Sandy / Reluctant Entertainer

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