What to do with PEACHES…5 delicious ideas!

Peach Season is HERE! What are you going to do with all those peaches? Farmer’s Markets are booming with PEACHES!  Lucky for us. I am especially lucky because I live about 30 minutes from a couple beautiful orchards so I can buy them right where they are grown.  Driving to the orchard and buying peaches makes for a fun family adventure. I also love to buy my apples this way, you can read about that (along with the world’s best caramel sauce recipe), here.  I thought I would share some of my favorite ideas of what to do with peaches.

What to Do with All those Wonderful Peaches

I am a sucker for peaches.  I am one of those that can take a huge juicy bite right out of one, fuzzy skin and all. But sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach, and my husband’s stomach, and my kids’ stomachs and I have a load of wonderfully smelling peaches, going bad fast.  So, what to do with peaches?  I have a few ideas for you, but let’s start with…

What to do with Peaches |Peach Salsa

Quick, fast and delicious.

Ingredients:

1 large ripe avocado

2 peaches (can also use mangoes)

2 Roma tomatoes

1 pepper (jalapeño if you like heat)

1 lime (juice)

fresh cilantro (I actually used basil instead this time, delicious)

1/4 onion

1 clove of garlic

Chop it all up and toss together.  It doesn’t get easier than that!

Just for fun, I thought I would share a few tips I learned from my mom (who is a gourmet cook, by the way) that may make this process even easier. Many of you may know these tricks so you can skip to the rest of the ideas at the bottom of the post.  For the rest of us…

Tip #1 Peeling Peaches

Getting the skins off of peaches is a BREEZE when you follow this trick:

Submerge peaches in softly boiling water,

for 30 seconds to 1 minute,

take out with a slotted spoon and put in an ice bath to stop the peach from cooking.

The skins will now fall right off with a gentle rub.

Now that is beautiful!

Tip #2 Ripe Avocados

It is hard to find perfectly ripe avocados at the grocery store.  But never fear…now, with a little planning, you can have them ready when you want them to be and not when they decide to be.  Just plop them into a brown paper bag with a banana peel the night before you want to use them. They’ll be ripe the next day (or very shortly thereafter). Don’t believe me?  Try it.

Tip #3 Diced Avocados

Take your knife and slice strips into half an avocado horizontally and then vertically.  Then take your spoon and scoop out your perfectly shaped dices.

Tip #4 Fresh Cilantro…longer

Wash, spin or pat dry, and wrap inside a couple paper towels.  Put in ziplock and be happy your cilantro lasts so long!

Tip #5 Crisp Lettuce…longer

OK. So I cheated a little.  This is the same as #4 but it works brilliantly for lettuce, too! I was amazed at how long I was pulling fresh CRISP lettuce out of my fridge the first time my mom did this for me!

Tip #6 Chopped Basil

Or any leafy herb.

The pictures below are pretty self-explanatory…

In case you are not a visual learner:

1. stack leaves tightly together

2. roll stack tightly

3. chop thin slices through the rolled stack

4. perfect basil ribbons

Ok enough playing culinary school for now.  Thanks, mom for the tips!

On to more ideas for your PEACHES!

What to do with Peaches |Peach Salsa over fish

Cook up some of your favorite fish or chicken.

And WOW it with some of your freshly made peach salsa.

I felt so gourmet when I served this beauty…

I was so excited, I forgot to add sides. Pretty dishes like this don’t happen very regularly around here. 🙂

What to do with Peaches | Peach Cobbler

Click here for my grandma’s apple cobbler recipe – also works for peaches! YUM!

What to do with Peaches | Peach Smoothies or Popsicles

It’s ok to have popsicles for breakfast sometimes! I also like to make these with just peaches, yogurt, ice, and milk – a yummy PEACHY treat.

What to do with Peaches | Slice ’em up!

Peaches are my favorite topping for steel cut oats. This is one of my all-time favorite things to eat for breakfast.  If you have not tried them, do yourself a favor. Try them!

Now you have NO EXCUSE to let those peaches go bad!