Roasted peaches with sweet and tangy tahini-kefir cream is your new summer dessert. And breakfast!
This post title is a bit of a bold claim. Although I am always proud of every recipe I publish here on Food To Glow, such horn-tooting is really not my style. Rather, I hope you are drawn to open your FTG notifications because you trust me. Trust that I am worth a few minutes’ of your precious time.
The reason I am being so forward today is to get your attention. You see, this recipe for roasted peaches is one I just know you will be making all summer long. That’s my plan at least. As long as juicy, voluptuously-fleshy peaches are available, I’m making this. I may yet get tired of their oven-roasted sweetness. But I really don’t think so.
Why are these roasted peaches so flipping good?
Okay, you start with ripe peaches. Not mushy ones, not super firm ones. Juste à droite. See below for how to test for ripeness.
So, starting with perfect peaches – or indeed this would be great with equally-gorgeous-in-my-book, nectarines – we roast them. Split in half, the cut sides are sprinkled with fresh lemon thyme and just a tiny amount of muscovado sugar before bubbling up in the oven. While they roast you mix up a simple tahini cream by stirring together tahini, kefir, maple syrup and lemon juice. And oh. my. goodness. This is my new favourite sweet thing. Truly. A balance of faintly bitter (tahini), sweet (maple syrup), fruity-sour (lemon) and tangy-creamy (kefir). This sauce is a beautiful foil for most any roasted fruit I can think of. I want to see if it makes me fall in love with my fruit nemesis, bananas. I’ll let you know.
Once the peaches are roasted, soft enough to eat with a spoon, you build up the dish.
So easy: Lay each serving of peaches on a puddle of kefir and spoon over the sweet tahini cream. To add texture and another dimension of flavour, dash with toasted sesame seeds and flaked almonds. Any stray bits of sauce can be dotted into the kefir and perhaps made fancy by running a toothpick through it. That will add at least £2 to the menu price. 😉
These roasted peaches are not only for dessert, but also for breakfast. And just because.
How to know if a peach is ripe
I do this by seeing if the peaches smell, well, peachy. Gently lifting to my nose I give them a test with the gentlest of palm squeezes. If ripe, the distinctive perfume will waft upwards, whispering “summer.” And, like ready-to-eat avocados, they should give a bit in your hand. Then it is a case of getting the fuzzy beauties home without dropping them. And, if you know me, you know this is no mean feat. And, not being a fan of refrigerated fruit, I try and buy only what I need and use within two days.
Another way to help decide whether a peach is ripe is by its colour. Breeding techniques have built in that enticing, ripe-looking red stripe. Don’t be fooled though. That’s largely a sales gimmick. A peach’s base colour tells you what you need to know. Yellow, golden yellow, is the signal. Ignore the red stripe.
Wrinkles are good. At least in peaches. A slight wrinkling at the stem end means it is just right.
To ripen at home…
…pop them in a paper bag and leave at room temperature. I don’t buy rock-hard peaches with swathes of green on them. I find that they never ripen. Although they might make decent jam.
And, no post of mine on peaches would be complete without reference to the great food writer Diana Henry, and her multi-award winning cookbook, How To Eat A Peach: Menus, stories and places
A few peachy recipes on Food To Glow
Cherry and Pistachio Salad with Magic Peach Dressing
Peach Melba Cranachan (a yummy Scottish dessert!)
Tangy Thai Fruit Salad (below)
More peach recipe links below the post in the “related posts” section, plus in my recipe index.
In short, I really think I’ve come up with something that will rock your world, fruit-wise. Try it and let me know. 🙂
Whether on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or of course here on the blog, I love to see what you do with my recipes, and I welcome your comments, star ratings, tweaks and suggestions on my Roasted Peaches, Sweet Tahini, and Kefir, and any of my other 600+ recipes.
**Also, if you’ve made/intend to make this recipe, please do consider rating it as it will make this recipe more visible on search engines. To do so, click the appropriate star underneath the small photo on the recipe card, below. Thank you so much!**
Roasted Peaches, Sweet Tahini and Kefir
A simple but stunning light dessert of roasted peaches, thyme, sweet tahini cream and kefir
Ingredients
- 3 peaches ripe
- 2 tsp lemon thyme leaves or thyme leaves
- 1 tbsp muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar
- 2 tbsp flaked almonds toasted, to garnish
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds toasted, to garnish
Sweet Tahini Cream
- 2 tbsp light tahini paste
- 1 tbsp maple syrup or date syrup or few drops of pure stevia
- 100 ml milk kefir divided use
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 200C fan/220C/425F.
-
Halve and de-stone the peaches, sprinkle with fresh lemon thyme leaves, then with the muscovado sugar. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking tray or in a ceramic dish. Roast cut-side up in the oven for 20 minutes.
-
Meanwhile, mix one tablespoon of kefir with the tahini, maple syrup and lemon juice until completely smooth.
-
Remove the peaches from the oven and let cool for five minutes.
-
Pour the remaining kefir evenly between three shallow serving bowls. Place two peaches in each bowl, spoon over the sweet tahini cream and sprinkle over the almonds and sesame seeds. If there is any cream still in the bowl dot it with a small spoon into the kefir. Eat immediately.
Recipe Notes
- Although this makes a fantastic and easy dessert, it also tastes great for breakfast as leftovers. Just let it sit out for 20 minutes to take the chill off. Or make it fresh, of course.
- You can roast the peaches and make the sauce ahead of time, bringing to room temperature when you are ready to eat. This would a great healthy dessert at your summer BBQ or picnic, too.
- BBQ it! Wrap the halved peaches, with their sugar and thyme, in oiled foil and place on a low rack, over hot but ashy coals (after you've finished cooking your dinner stuff), for about 15 minutes. They should be perfect, and very gooey!
Variations: if not peaches, why not use your favourite in-season stone fruit? Apricots, plums, pluots, cherries, nectarines would all be great with this recipe. Just scale up the number of smaller fruits to 3-4 halves per serving; for cherries, a good handful each.
This post contains UK Amazon affiliate links. Buying through them costs you no extra money and gives me a small amount of money. I only link to products I own and use myself.Thank you for supporting Food To Glow by purchasing from these links. 🙂
PIN NOW. MAKE SOON!
This is the finest flavour combinations and colours that just make you feel good – brilliant
OMG that sounds SO good!
So unique, healthy, yet indulgent – FTG strikes again! ❤️
That’s a WOW dessert, and healthy, too!
Oh, they look really good! I bet they are as filling and can jump start any breakfast!
What a glorious combo! I put tahini of so many things as I absolutely love it but Ive never used it on a baked peach but absolutely love the sound of it. Bravo, what a fantastic idea (and love the thought of thyme on the peach too) !
Yes, you are always worth a few minutes of my time! 😉 And this recipe! I love the idea of combining tahini with kefir. This is going on my to-make list!
The Food To Glow dessert menu is growing and I’m 100% here for it. This tastes amazing!!!