Summer salad

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we had one of our dinner club dinners and the theme was "Farm Fresh".  We were in charge of the salad, so we headed down to the farmers market to see what was available.  We knew we needed a salad that would work with a homemade raspberry vinagrette as we have raspberry bushes in our backyard and we wanted to feature them in the salad somehow.

The farmer's market had TONS of peaches, and we decided grilling the peaches would take away enough of the sweetness to make the salad just perfect.  The purple strips you see are a purple pepper- tastes the same as a red or yellow, just a different color and perhaps a little less tender. 

We also added a cucumber scored with a fork to make it pretty, candied pecans (so easy!), green leaf lettuce, and feta. 

(close up of the grilled peach and pecans)

The salad received rave reviews and almost everyone went back for seconds.  We were really pleased with the taste and the presentation!

If you ever want to add grilled peaches to your salad, I would highly recommend getting freestone peaches.  Ours ended up being the clingstone variety, and it was NOT a fun experience trying to get them into decent looking slices.

Let me know if you want the recipe for the vinagrette.  It's muy delicioso!