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Lucious grilled apricots, creamy burrata, and crunchy almonds served over tender lettuce and arugula. My Grilled Apricots and Burrata Salad is a great summertime lunch or light dinner. So good!

Celebrate Summer with Grilled Apricot and Burrata Salad

For food lovers, a summer stroll through the produce section or local farmer’s market is pure joy. Displays of fresh, colorful, peak-of-season fruits and veggies are a feast for the eye and the imagination.

Still, summertime bounties present something of a problem, albeit a good one. With so much mouth-watering deliciousness on display, where do you even start? How do you choose?

For me, the answer usually involves stone fruits. Though you can buy peaches, nectarines, and apricots practically year-round these days, why would you?

Out-of-season stone fruits are incredibly expensive and invariably disappointing. In-season,summertime stone fruits are pure poetry. And it seems to me that this year’s crop is even better than usual – juicy, sweet, and succulent.

But the peak season for stone fruits is short. So, I’m incorporating them into as many recipes as I can these days, including this phenomenal Grilled Apricot and Burrata Salad.

This light, delicious mealtime salad is summer on a plate. And so easy to make.

What Do You Need to Make Grilled Apricot and Burrata Salad?

You don’t need many ingredients to make this marvelous salad. But it’s important that you use the best ingredients. That means getting the freshest, ripest, most flavorful produce you can find.

Apricots – Use the squeeze test to make sure your apricots are ripe, but not too ripe. If a gentle but firm press of your fingers makes a slight indentation in the fruit, it’s perfect.
Olive oil – For grilling the apricots. Though I used olive oil, you could sub just about any oil here. Almond, sesame, or peanut oil might add an extra hint of subtle flavor.
Burrata – This fresh, mild-tasting Italian cheese must be refrigerated, so look for it in a deli cool case or dairy section. Burrata has a firm outer skin like mozzarella, but the inside is soft, creamy, and simply divine.
Arugula and Green Leaf Lettuce – Though you can sub other greens, I love a mixture of arugula and green leaf lettuce for this salad. The slightly spicy arugula is wonderful with the sweet grilled apricots and creamy Burrata.
Marcona Almonds – A sprinkle of skinless Marcona almonds adds crunch and a touch of nutty flavor to the dish. However, you could substitute other nuts. Roasted pistachios would be a wonderful choice, too.
Maple Vinaigrette – My simple maple vinaigrette is slightly sweet and slightly tart, making it absolutely perfect for this dish. It enhances the other ingredients without overpowering them. Find my recipe here.
Honey – A very light drizzle of warm honey just before serving is optional. But it can be a nice finishing touch.

Grilling the Apricots

One of the advantages of serving salad for a summertime lunch or dinner is that there’s not much actual cooking involved. You simply place the ingredients in a bowl, make the dressing, pour it on, toss the salad, and voila – dinner is served!

This Grilled Apricot and Burrata follows that formula, with one exception. Though it might seem a little intimidating if you’ve never done it before, grilling apricots is pretty easy.

Begin by cutting the apricots in half and brushing the cut side with oil. You’ll also want to rub some oil on the grill rack or pan to help keep the apricots from sticking.

(Unfortunately, I forgot that step this time, so I didn’t get as many grill marks as I would have liked. But they still looked and tasted great!)

Preheat the grill, making sure it’s nice and hot. Then place the apricots cut side down and grill until they soften slightly – about three to four minutes.

Either an outdoor grill or a grill pan will work here. In a pinch, you could just pop the apricots into the oven under the broiler for a couple of minutes. But grilling them is almost as easy, and I think the grill marks look extra nice.

No matter how you prepare the apricots, Grilled Apricot and Burrata Salad tastes terrific! Give it a try soon!