Stone Fruit Salad with Root Veg and Blueberry Basil Vinaigrette

Barely ripe stone fruits are cubed, as are lightly cooked, still crunchy sweet potatoes and beets. The bright red and orange mix is tossed with other veggies, then drizzled with a blueberry basil vinaigrette for a tangy, crunchy, bright salad with representatives from every color of the rainbow!

This salad is inspired by two things, the concept of incorporating more fruits into salads, and the idea of cubing a bunch of veggies to create an arranged, rainbow salad. Yup, these kinds of visions come to me. The vision includes fresh and bright looking vegetables and fruits, no mushy or browned roasted root veggies in this salad! So, the beets and sweet potatoes are lightly blanched, just enough to bring out the sweetness and get rid of the earthy raw texture and flavor, but not so much that the cubes break down or are mushy. This, combined with barely ripe plums and peaches, a sour granny smith, a bitter-ish yellow pepper and zippy red onion, makes for a flavor packed salad. The blueberry basil vinaigrette, spicy or not, adds a slurpy tang that brings it all together. Serve it on some greens, any type, any which way, because they create a great contrast of color and are so vital to a well rounded salad.

Above: This stone fruit and veggie salad can be served as an arranged salad like shown here, where the stone fruit is kept aside until serving, since it can break down and get mushy easily.

Why this recipe works

• Bright ingredients- the colors in this salad are unreal! Taking the time to choose barely ripe yellow peaches and red plums, plus blanching the beets and sweet potatoes just enough, are endeavors worth the effort to yield this brightly colored salad you can’t resist.
• Blueberry basil vinaigrette- blitzing blueberries and fresh basil with some other standard ingredients (lemon juice, maple syrup, olive oil, garlic, etc) creates a unique and very tasty flavor bomb of a dressing.
• Simple and pure- as you can see, the standard inclusion of feta, burrata, or toasted nuts or seeds, is not present in this recipe. I see it as a crutch I did not want to lean on. This salad is pure freshness of veg and fruit.

Above: the ingredients and how they are chosen and prepared is not difficult, but is integral to achieving a beautiful salad!

Ingredient notes

• Stone fruit- barely ripe fruit is chosen so that it has a a crispness and remains in firm cubes after cutting it up for the salad. Yellow peaches and red fleshed plums are the choices here, but of course, any colored peach and plum will work.
• Blanched root vegetables- cubed red beets, golden beets, and sweet potatoes are lightly blanched so that they still have a bite but don’t taste raw.
• Contrast ingredients to round out the flavor- to balance the sweetness of the stone fruits and root vegetables, a granny smith apple, red onion and sweet yellow pepper lend tang, a little bitterness, and bite to the flavors.
• Blueberry basil vinaigrette- fresh or frozen blueberries create a very similar vinaigrette, so you can use either, or both. I like frozen for the dressing and fresh for garnishing the salad. Fresh basil is essential, but the rest of the vinaigrette ingredients are basic.
• Greens for garnish- fresh snipped herbs of your choice and a bit of bitter greens for the bed of the salad are all that are needed to finish the dish. I sliced some raw brussel sprouts with my mandolin and snipped some lacinato kale from the garden, but arugula would also be a great choice.

Above: such a rustic group of ingredients is turned into a beautiful, bright and tasty salad.

Step-by-step instructions

The first order of business for this salad, is to blitz together the blueberry basil vinaigrette ingredients.

Above: fresh or frozen blueberries are blended with fresh basil, shallots, garlic, lemon and olive oil. An option to create a spicy vinaigrette includes the addition of fresh ginger root and ground cinnamon, cumin and cayenne. Either option is delicious.

Above: I love using my “Beast” mini-blender. It’s high speed, but has a smaller pitcher which makes blending a cup of vinaigrette more effective and easier. A larger blender can be used but it may leave some specs of fruit in the vinaigrette, versus the smooth purple color that the Beast mini-blender can achieve.

Once the vinaigrette is put away to chill, you will chop up the root vegetables into 1/2″ cubes and blanch them lightly (4-5 min ea.). Dropping them in one variety at a time, and then scooping them out, to make room for the next batch, allows you to keep them separate, and create an arranged salad without the red beets coloring all the other vegetables red!

After blanching, draining and using paper towel to grab extra moisture from the root vegetables, they can be placed on a plate next to each other.

In a separate bowl, the chopped red onion can be soaked in water to eliminate the strong odor/taste (totally optional), and I highly recommend tossing the cubed granny smith apple with a tablespoon of lemon juice. This will keep the apple white w/out any brown marks even into the next day if covered.

With all the components prepped, you can arrange the veggies and fruit by color on a platter to serve, if you like. The stone fruits could be on this platter, but I serve them at the table when plating, to avoid them getting mushy or breaking down.

Another option is to simply toss all the ingredients together, including the stone fruit, and serve on a platter that way, drizzling the blueberry basil vinaigrette over the top. So delicious either way, but don’t forget to snip some fresh herbs across the top with blueberries for garnish.

Once served, the salad takes on a beautiful purple hue, as all the ingredients are thoroughly tossed and additional dressing is optionally added. It’s so juicy and fresh, you can’t really get enough of this vinaigrette. It’s not overly oily.

Tips for making this recipe

• Blanch the beets and sweet potatoes lightly for 4-5 minutes, so that they are not raw, but are not mushy either.
• Use a high powered blender or a mini blender so that the vinaigrette is thoroughly pureed and emulsified. Ideally there should not be any flecks of blueberry in the mixture once it is blended.
• Don’t overdue the greens, which I call an “under garnish”. You want them for contrast but don’t want a lot of them to chomp through, rather, the stone fruit and root veg are the focus.
• Don’t forget the snipped fresh herbs as a garnish. They add so much aesthetically, but they also add tons of flavor.
• Make the vinaigrette a day ahead to save on time, but I recommend serving the salad only lightly chilled versus letting the cubed ingredients sit overnight. This makes for the ultimate fresh salad when first serving it.

Related recipes

Love arranged salads? Try my Carrot Cucumber Daikon Salad with Cilantro Citrus Dressing. Like a different take on a classic? Then try my Asian Coleslaw with Spicy Marinated Shiitake Mushrooms or my Romanesco Wedge Salad with Herby Feta Creme Fraiche Dressing.