I am excited to bring you this new recipe featuring end of summer produce: peach vinaigrette dressing!! This homemade peach honey vinaigrette only uses FOUR main ingredients and literally takes just minutes to make. I love how it actually has a creamy taste and texture, but this comes 100% from the peaches versus mayo like many creamy dressings use. It makes for the most delicious dressing for a yummy salad recipe coming to the blog next week…stay tuned for that! ?
I’ve mentioned this before, but I am always inspired to create new recipes using seasonal produce. Specifically, when that seasonal produce is in my backyard. Nothing that motivates new recipe testing when you have a plethora of garden zucchini or homegrown peaches from your peach trees! My husband and I planted 4 peach sapling trees 4 years ago when we first moved into our house, and this is the first year that we finally started getting peaches from them which is exciting!
This recipe is adapted from my strawberry vinaigrette dressing, which I absolutely LOVE on this strawberry spinach salad. It’s so easy and fun to make homemade salad dressings (it literally just takes minutes of your time), and they are almost always much healthier and made with way less ingredients than store-bought dressing! (Obviously, I still buy store-bought dressings too. They have a time and place and can be delicious as well.) ? All that to say, I love making homemade as you can easily customize based on your taste, preferences, and what you have on hand at home!
Here’s what you’ll need to make this peach vinaigrette dressing:
Ingredients and Substitution Ideas
Peaches
Well, if you want a peach salad dressing you’re going to need a base of peaches ? Interestingly, I did not simply take my strawberry vinaigrette dressing and just sub peaches. I learned that peaches have a different water content than strawberries, so there is a different ratio of ingredients needed for the best taste and texture. If you are looking for a strawberry dressing though, I highly recommend this one!
Olive oil
You can definitely substitute in another oil here, although I prefer using olive oil in homemade salad dressings. Make sure it’s a liquid oil at room temp (i.e., avocado, canola, etc.) as a solid fat like coconut oil wouldn’t work well here.
White wine vinegar
You can also sub the type of vinegar you use here, but note it might have a slightly different taste! I used white wine vinegar, but white balsamic vinegar would be a lovely substitution here. I personally wouldn’t recommend plain white/distilled vinegar as that would likely have too strong of a taste. Apple cider vinegar may work, but again it may have a different end product taste!
Honey
Feel free to sub maple syrup in place of honey, but I personally much prefer the flavor of honey with the peaches…they compliment each other perfectly! You may also try to sub agave nectar. I haven’t tried subbing in white granulated sugar, but feel free to experiment!
Salt
I don’t count this as an actual ingredient, but it’s important to bring all the flavors together and actually brings out the natural sweetness in recipes.
Water
I was honestly really surprised that this ended up being an ingredient. As I previously mentioned, the peaches (at least the ones I used; yours may be juicier) resulted in a much thicker dressing than the strawberry salad dressing. I found a bit of water was needed to thin out the dressing, but I’d definitely add this ingredient last and just wait and see if your peaches need it or not! A lot of this is based on personal preference and how thick/think you want your dressing. I left it fairly thick and creamy.
Serving Suggestions
I have the most delicious salad recipe featuring this salad dressing along with other late-summer garden produce coming next week…stay tuned! In the meantime, this peach dressing is absolutely delicious on salads with fruit (may I suggest peaches?), feta cheese, and nuts! ?
- 1 cup peaches, sliced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar (or white balsamic)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Pinch sea salt
- 2-3 tablespoons water, added last and as needed to thin
- Add peaches, olive oil, vinegar, honey, and salt to a blender or small food processor.
- Blend until smooth.
- Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed to thin (this will depend on how juicy your peaches are and your preference on how thick/creamy you want your salad dressing).
- Store in fridge!
Linda
I saw your recipe for the Buckeye recipe on the orgain website. It looks yummy. I’m a registered dietitian also and want the opinion of another RD. You use coconut oil and I’m seeing more RDs recommend it. I’ve never recommended it due to high levels of saturated fat BUT believe I’m missing something.
I understand some tout its health benefits but will only trust the opinion of another RD. Why do you choose it?
Audra's Appetite
Hi Linda,
Thank you; hope you give the Buckeye recipe a try!
In answer to your question regarding coconut oil, I do not think it is a “health food.” Would I recommend eating multiple tablespoons of coconut oil each day? No, just like I wouldn’t recommend doing that with butter. However, I absolutely do not think a small amount is anything to worry about, though! Especially the amount used in the buckeye recipe or even other recipes I have that use coconut oil.
I would never want to instill fear around a food/food group to others especially with the RD credential. I love using it in recipes due to it’s unique properties (ie, olive oil wouldn’t allow the chocolate to firm up). I enjoy the taste! I also love making my own chocolate in the buckeye recipe as I can modify the sugar based on my preferences, versus many melted chocolate bars/chips would have much more sugar. Hope this makes sense!
Brittany Audra of Audra’s Appetite