Jenna Bush Hager Grills This Fruit for Her Favorite Summer Salad: "It's So Delicious"
The TODAY co-anchor says this salad hack can bring the fruit "back to life."
While some occasions call for a big bowl of Jenna Bush Hager's queso dip, summertime can make you crave something refreshing, crisp, and maybe a little sweet. And the TODAY co-anchor has a simple salad hack that uses a deliciously seasonal fruit.
Bush Hager once shared on TODAY that the Caesar salad "introduced" her to lettuce as a little girl. "The Caesar salad is just really lettuce covered with delicious cream, cheese, and bread," she said in a 2024 segment with her former TODAY co-host Hoda Kotb.
But since then, Bush Hager has incorporated other flavorful ingredients that really jazz up a plate of greens. Including some grilled or pan-seared fruit.
RELATED: Jenna Bush Hager Reveals the 1 Adorable Thing Dad George W. Bush Does Each Morning
Jenna Bush Hager's "delicious" summer salad hack? Grilled peaches
During a July 2020 "unscripted" segment on TODAY, Bush Hager told Kotb that adding grilled peaches is not only "delicious," it's a handy way to save the fruit when it's starting to go bad.
"I do those grilled peaches, but I just do them on the stovetop so I don't have to go outside to the grill," Bush Hager said. "I put olive oil, a little salt, I put that peach down there, and then I put it on a salad. It's so delicious."
"I love fruit on a salad," Kotb agreed.
"And, you know what it does? When those peaches have fruit flies around them and they're going bad, that's when you [cook them.] You can grill a peach and it brings it back to life," Bush Hager added.
As for Kotb, she said one of her "favorite salads to make" in the summer also used fruit. Specifically, cubed up avocado and champagne mangoes mixed with balsamic vinegar and croutons. Kotb described the combo as "crunchy, sweet, savory, delicious."
RELATED: Jimmy Fallon Says This Fruit Salad Is the “Best Thing” He’s “Ever Tasted"
Jenna Bush Hager's favorite "girl dinner" is perfect for hot summer nights
In July 2023, Bush Hager and the ladies of TODAY weighed in on the viral "girl dinner" trend, sharing their simple (and random) go-to meals they love to put together. Bush Hager's required zero cooking.
"These are the rules: Whatever is in the house," Bush Hager said as she revealed her plate of hummus, carrot sticks, olives, pickles, Triscuit crackers, a few pieces of chocolate, and sliced cheese, which she deemed "the most important part of the dinner."
RELATED: What Jenna Bush Hager Was "Never Allowed" to Do at the White House as a Kid
During the week, Bush Hager often keeps dinners simple when she cooks for her three children — Mila, 12, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5 — with her husband Henry Hager. "We have turkey tacos one night, sausage with peppers the next, and then we make bowls,” the TODAY co-host told People in a 2023 interview, adding that she also grew up eating the same few meals. "What I’m making is not Julia Child, let’s put it that way. I’m not Martha Stewart."
