Peach And Tomato Cold Summer Ramen Recipe

Combining peaches, tomatoes, and ramen noodles doesn't make for a typical salad, that's for sure, but developer Patterson Watkins tells us her inspiration for this recipe dates back a few decades. She first encountered cold ramen salad as a kid at neighborhood gatherings in the late '80s and early '90s and couldn't get enough of the stuff. She recalls it as "a cool, cold, potluck-perfect salad," and says that the memory has stuck with her for all these years.

As for the peach and tomato combo, Patterson found herself one summer with a surplus of both fruits, so she combined the two in a salad and describes the savory-sweet pairing as "transcendent." This creation, however, combines both inspirations and makes for a dish she calls "Ideally summer: refreshing, fun, and delightfully tasty." In keeping with the summery nature of the salad, Watkins likes to serve it as part of a meal that doesn't require much (if any) cooking, but it would be delightful with a chilled soup (try our sweet corn soup recipe) or a sandwich made with fresh fruit. If you don't mind turning on the oven, this noodle salad could also make the perfect accompaniment for sweet and sour peach chicken.

For the salad itself, you'll need soy sauce-flavored ramen noodles (including the seasoning packet), peaches, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, basil, scallions, roasted peanuts, and sesame seeds (Watkins favors a combination of black and white ones). To make the vinaigrette dressing, you'll also need lime juice, rice vinegar, honey, olive oil, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic.

Make the vinnaigrette: Place the lime juice, vinegar, honey, olive oil, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and ramen seasoning in a medium bowl.

Whisk to combine the vinaigrette. Set aside or cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Place the cooked ramen noodles in a large bowl.

Add the peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers, and radishes.

Add the vinaigrette to the bowl and toss to combine.

Transfer the salad to a large serving plate or bowl.

Top the salad with basil and scallions.

Sprinkle the salad with peanuts, sesame seeds, and a pinch of ramen seasoning before serving.

The only real downside to this peach and tomato noodle salad is one that is common to most cold salads: It doesn't make good leftovers, nor can the entire salad be assembled more than an hour or so ahead of when you plan to eat it. As Watkins explains, "The tricky thing about this salad is that when the fresh fruit, veggies, and cooked noodles hit that acidic vinaigrette, they'll start to break down and get mushy." You can, however prepare the individual components in advance and then mix everything together right before you serve the salad.

There is one thing you can do that will help turn this summer salad into more of a make-ahead dish: Break up the ramen noodles and leave them uncooked. You still won't want to let the prepared salad sit for too long since this will result in soggy vegetables, but if the raw noodles get to soak in the dressing for a few hours, they'll absorb just enough liquid to soften up on their own.

While this salad is summertime perfection, you can still play around with the recipe. If you'd like to boost the vegetable content, you can add bell peppers, corn, or avocados, while other stone fruits, such as apricots, nectarines, and plums, can be used in place of the peaches. You could also turn this dish into an entree by adding some type of protein — try meat, hard-boiled eggs, or tofu.

If you do decide to add meat to your ramen salad — or even if you don't — you could also change up the flavor of the ramen noodles to match. Use shrimp-flavored ramen with shrimp, chicken-flavored with pork, or spicy ramen noodles with anything. If a spicy-sweet salad sounds good to you, you could also stir some sriracha into the vinaigrette, drizzle the dish with chili oil, or use chili crisp as a topper.