This Summer Stone Fruit Salad features fresh cherries, peaches, bow-tie pasta, feta cheese, and arugula. The Honey-Lemon Salad Dressing is made from scratch with lemon juice, honey, Dijon mustard, olive oil, and Italian seasoning. Serve it as a side or main dish for easy Summer weeknight meals. Or, share this quick and easy crowd-pleasing salad at picnics, potlucks, barbecues, and other friends and family gatherings!
Summer stone fruit salad
This recipe uses Summer ingredients, such as cherries and peaches, that we often associate with beautiful and sunny weather and that are in season only in the Summer. The prep is minimal - you will have to remove pits both from peaches and cherries which is really easy to do! This healthy salad is meatless, vegetarian, high in fiber, and easily made gluten-free (just use GF pasta). It makes a perfect pairing with quick and easy Summer meals, such as grilled meats, BBQ ribs, chicken, etc. You can also serve this vibrant and colorful salad for a special holiday occasion, especially during warmer months, such as Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July, or Labor Day, or bring it to cookouts and picnics to share with family and friends. Other Summer stonefruit salads you might enjoy are peach blueberry spinach salad and strawberry mango salad.
What is stone fruit?
Stone fruit, as the name implies, is a fruit with a stone (or a pit) inside it. Stone fruit that most of us are familiar with are fresh peaches, cherries, nectarines, apricots, and plums - all of these ripen up and become available in the Summer. The pit inside each stone fruit is actually a seed that can grow a tree!
Stone fruit salad ingredients
- Peaches. Choose peaches that are plump and firm (or slightly soft) to the touch, with unwrinkled skin. Remove the pit from each peach before using it in a salad.
- Cherries. Use dark fresh sweet cherries that are firm in texture. Use a cherry pitter (I bought a great one on Amazon!). Slice each pitted cherry in half. Do not use frozen or canned cherries. Sour (tart) cherries won't work in this recipe, either.
- Arugula is a cruciferous vegetable from the same family as cabbage and broccoli. It's packed with minerals, such as Calcium and Potassium, and is a good source of several vitamins: Folate and vitamins A, C, and K.
- Feta cheese is quite nutritious, as well, and is a great source of calcium. This delicious cheese has a soft texture and briny flavor.
- Pasta - I used farfalle (bow-tie pasta). Any short-cut pasta would work - fusilli, penne, rigatoni, or even orzo. For gluten-free version, use GF pasta.
Honey Dijon mustard lemon dressing
- Salad dressing ingredients include extra virgin olive oil, honey, freshly squeezed lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and Italian seasoning. You can use freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice. Honey can be replaced with maple syrup.
- Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a mason jar and whisk with the fork (or close the jar with the lid and shake it vigorously to blend the flavors).
How to make stone fruit salad
- Start by cooking pasta in a large pot of boiling water. In the meantime, proceed with the rest of the recipe. Drain the pasta when it's cooked and keep the pasta in the pot where you cooked it.
- Make the salad dressing. Add all salad ingredients to a clean glass jar (such as a mason jar). Stir with the fork to combine.
- To make the salad, add sliced and pitted peaches, arugula, and feta cheese to the pot with cooked pasta. Add the salad dressing and stir well to combine all the ingredients. Arugula will wilt somewhat - but that's what we want. Wilted arugula has a softer flavor and tender texture. When serving, top the salad halved and pitted cherries last. Otherwise, the cherries will stain the other ingredients with red color.
- Serve it warm or at room temperature. This stone fruit pasta salad tastes the best when it's a bit warmed up.
Variations
- Greens. Use your favorite greens - spinach, arugula, mixed greens, or garden greens.
- Use other stone fruit, such as mango, apricots, nectarines, and plums instead of or in addition to peaches and cherries.
- Nuts. Dress up this stone fruit salad with your favorite nuts: pecans, walnuts, cashews, pine nuts, or almonds.
- Pasta. I recommend using short-cut pasta, such as bow tie, fusilli, penne, rigatoni, orecchiette, or orzo.
- Make it gluten-free by using brown rice pasta, lentil pasta, chickpea pasta, or any other gluten-free choices.
- Dried fruit. Add dried cranberries, dried figs, blueberries, or cherries.
- Cheese. I recommend using goat cheese, feta, or gorgonzola.
How to store it
- The stone fruit salad with pasta keeps well refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Add protein to make it a complete meal
Add your favorite protein to turn the stone fruit pasta salad into a well-balanced meal. Easy ideas are leftover cooked chicken, rotisserie chicken, grilled meats, shrimp, salmon, trout, or scallops. Here are some simple recipes:
- Pan-Seared Skinless Boneless Chicken Thighs
- Cajun Chicken
- Garlic Butter Lemon Shrimp
- Bacon Scallops with Lemon Butter Sauce
Other stone fruit salads
- Peach Blueberry Spinach Salad with Prosciutto, Pecans, and Balsamic Dressing
- Strawberry Mango Salad
- Apricot Salad with Spinach, Cherries, Pecans, and Feta Cheese
- Mango Salad with Spinach, Blueberries, Walnuts, and Feta Cheese
- Peach Mozzarella Salad with Basil and Prosciutto
Stone Fruit Salad with Cherries, Peaches, Pasta, Feta, and Arugula
Ingredients
Pasta
- 8 oz farfalle bow-tie pasta
Salad dressing
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Salad ingredients
- 6 oz arugula
- 6 oz feta cheese crumbled
- 2 yellow peaches pitted and sliced
- 2 cups fresh cherries pitted and halved
Instructions
Cook pasta
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook pasta al dente according to the package instructions.
- Proceed with the rest of the recipe while the pasta is cooking.
- When the pasta is done, drain. Keep the drained pasta in the same pot where you cooked it.
Make salad dressing
- Combine all salad dressing ingredients in a mason jar. Whisk well with a spoon, until emulsified.
Salad assembly
- In a pot where you cooked and drained the pasta, combine warm, cooked, and drained pasta together with arugula, half of the crumbled feta cheese, and the salad dressing. Mix well.
- Add sliced peaches. Toss to combine.
- When serving, distribute the salad into large individual deep salad bowls or pasta bowls.
- Top each individual portion with the remaining half of crumbled Feta cheese and halved pitted cherries. The cherries are added last so that they don't color the salad too much.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Julia, does this salad have to be served warm? I wanted to make it ahead of time to bring to a friend’s home.
Hi Donna, it doesn't have to be served warm. Serve it at room temperature (not refrigerator cold since the dressing has olive oil). Enjoy, I hope everyone loves it!
Peaches are so hard to find not being mealy would canned peaches work ok in this I know fresh would be the best but this salad looks awesome
Hi Cindy, canned peaches should work fine. Just drain them well from any liquid. Maybe, try adding them on top (not mixing them in the salad) to prevent them from breaking apart.