This is neither a fruit salad nor a vegetable salad. It’s a hybrid. Both fruit and veg. At first read, a Five-Spice, Peach, Raspberry, and Radicchio Salad may seem like a culinary survivor of the strange salad days of the last century. Waldorf comes to mind as well as its sickly-sweet cousin Ambrosia. Oh, and Jell‑O salad. I don’t know what Betty Crocker was smoking all through the Atomic Age, but gastronomically speaking, her recipes seem shockingly artificial today. How about Lime Jell‑O and Cheese Salad or the tuna and Jell‑O concoction from Betty Crocker’s Dinner in a Dish Cookbook (1965)? The spirited artifice of her combinations seem so foreign that we’re left to wonder: What on earth was going on?
Well, times have changed and so have our salads.
The key to updating a Betty Crocker recipe is to simply remove everything that’s lurid, Technicolor, and vulgar. What we’re left with is the idea that the partnering of unexpected ingredients – like peaches and radicchio – is worth exploring. I hope we’ve all come to a point that unusual combinations make us open our mouths before we raise our eyebrows.
Five-Spice, Peach, Raspberry, and Radicchio Salad with Calabrian Chiles
Besides, it’s not the peaches and radicchio that make this salad so unique – it’s the dressing. Which isn’t so much a vinaigrette in the traditional sense as it is a rustic, sweet-and-spicy coulis made with Chinese five-spice powder, Calabrian chiles, and mashed raspberries.
In case they’re new to you, Calabrian chile is a variety of red peperoncini from Southern Italy. It owes its name to the region of Calabria (Italy’s “toe”) where it’s been cultivated for hundreds of years.
In my neck of the woods very (very) good greengrocers or farmers markets may carry fresh Calabrian chiles. Pick them up if you see them, I’m sure you’ll enjoy their unique (though blazing hot) fruity flavor. However, I’ve forgone the fresh peppers in this recipe and chosen milder jarred Calabrian chiles packed in oil because our gal Betty would never use fresh if she could get her hands on something from a can or a bag or a box or a jar! GREG
Five-Spice Peach, Raspberry, and Radicchio Salad
Print This Recipe Yield 4Source Adapted from Yotam OttolenghiPublishedIf you can find a fresh Calabrian chile, that’s great. However, jarred in oil varieties are terrific too. Look for them online.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon five-spice powder
- 1 Calabrian chile-see notes (stemmed, seeded, and minced – about 1 teaspoon)
- 1 small shallot (peeled and thinly sliced — about 20 grams)
- 3 ounce fresh raspberries
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- 1 pound ripe but firm peaches (halved, pitted and sliced into ⅓‑inch thick pieces)
- 2 cup fresh arugula
- ¼ head of radicchio (sliced crosswise into 3/4‑inch strips)
Directions
In a bowl whisk together vinegar, oil, maple syrup, five-spice powder, minced Calabrian chile, and sliced shallot. Add the raspberries and crush them with the back of a fork until they are juicy yet still retain some rustic texture. Stir well; season with salt and pepper to taste.
Place the peaches, arugula, and radicchio on a serving platter. Drizzle the dressing on top. Mix well and serve.
I love all the fresh ingredients and interesting flavors in this salad. The 50’s and 60’s did have some weird recipes that they called food- not too nutritious though. Thanks or a fun read and good healthy recipe.
This sounds so interesting! I’ve been loving salads even more than usual lately, and this is right in my tastebuds’ bulls-eye.
I didn’t know about Betty Crocker, but about 10 years ago I made a savoury salad with champagne jello cubes, and I’d say it was pretty elegant and cool. Definitely much better that those horrendous dish from the link haha.
Anyway, I’m a huge fan of sweet and savoury salad combinations, and of course I use lots of seasonal fruit and berries. Nothing shocking for me here, but I can confirm this is utterly delicious. And the dressing sounds fresh!
Hi Greg! Beautiful and I love the addition of the chilies:)
Zing! Betty sit down; Greg take a bow. This looks and sounds incredible. I’m so jealous of your markets! The variety available to you in LA is stunning.
Wow. This is beautiful. Thank god my mother never made any of those horrific foods from the 50’s, but i know that people still make a variety of jello salads, even at Christmas time. Blecccchhhhh. This is beautiful. I happened to open some crushed Calabrian chile peppers I’d purchased, and there were so many curled up peels in the mix that I found them inedible. Must try a different brand.
Those strange salads always made us raise our eyebrows, marshmallow in a salad? Personally, I wouldn’t have lopped in Waldorf because I don’t find apple a strange ingredient to pair with protein (pork chops and apple sauce, for example). But that Technicolour lime jello??? WTF??? Lurid and vulgar are excellent descriptions. A dear friend’s mother still makes a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows! Even thinking about it makes me gag.
Your salad is gorgeous, I just grilled a bunch of peaches for the freezer, I will have to pull some out to give this a try.
What a fun post! So many of those dishes from the 50s and 60s really were awful. It was probably nightmares after eating a Jello‑O infested salad that led someone to invent tie dye. Anyway, I do enjoy fruit in salads, particularly when combined with pungent flavors — the five-spice powder and chilies sound like a brilliant combo, along with the raspberries. Really good stuff — thanks.