I triple-dog dare you to find a summer salad more refreshing than this sweet and savory watermelon salad. Do you know you can turn a sweet fruit into savory by adding just a little salt and acid? Throw some leaves at it, and you’ve got yourself a savory summer salad! Speaking of summer, is hotter than the devil with a fever where you live? Because it is a million degrees here in Nashville. Holy moly is it ever hot. It seems like we just flit from air conditioned building to air conditioned building. It’s definitely too hot for my five month old baby to be outside for more than fifteen minutes at a time – heat exhaustion is no joke!
not too hot to be too cute!
No one is outside in our neighborhood past 9AM and I mean No One. No kids playing, no joggers, no dog walkers, and I swear I saw tumbleweeds a’blowing down the cul-de-sac yesterday. When it’s this hot outside, only a cold salad will do.
mmmm melony
Queue: The watermelon. Not only is this watermelon salad cool, crisp and refreshing, but you dot not have to fire up the oven or stand in front of a billion degree grill (get it, Nashville million degree heat + grill heat = a billion degrees) to make it. The dressing comes together quickly and depending on how fast you can chop (or punch out cookie cutter shapes), you can be eating this salad in under 15 minutes. If you don’t want to be fancy of course you can just cut the watermelon up into cubes, toss with mint, feta and dressing and call it good, too.
To start, chill your watermelon, then cut it into 1″ slices the width of the melon so you have huge discs. The best watermelons are the solid hunter green on the outside, blood red on the inside, super sweet sugarbabies. (Clearly the melon used in this salad was a tad underripe and definitely not a sugarbaby.) Using a biscuit cutter or cookie cutter of preference, punch out your desired shape for the melon. Two to three slices per person should do it.
To make the dressing place all the ingredients in a small mason jar (or beat together in a bowl), put the lid on top and shake with vigor, until combined.
tiny mason jar for the win!
Next, mix the lettuce and chopped mint in a bowl and drizzle a little bit of dressing over top. It’s time to start stacking your salad. Save the rest of the dressing for up to two weeks. Side note: I like to use pickled red onions. To pickle the onions, I save the brine from an old jar of pickles. Slice the onion paper thin on a mandolin and let soak in the pickle juice forever as far as I’m concerned. If you have fresh red onions, that’s great too.
homemade pickled onions for the win!
Finally, place a little bit of dressed salad on the bottom of the plate, then watermelon, a little splash of dressing on the watermelon, followed by a small pinch of salt, a few rings of onion, and crumbled feta. Repeat as many times as desired finishing with feta on top. As you can see, the end result is a visual stunner. The mint pairs so well with the watermelon, the balsamic vinegar is so tangy, and the melon so refreshing. I’m going to go eat another plateful!
the stunner!
Watermelon Salad (Inspired by The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook)
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 small watermelon (preferably a sugarbaby) chilled
- 2 tablespoons feta cheese
- 1/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- fresh ground pepper & kosher salt
- 4 cups spring mix lettuce
- 1/2 cup mint, julienned
- 1/4 red onion, sliced thinly (on a mandolin if possible)
Method:
- Mix together vinegar, olive oil, feta cheese and pepper in a small mason jar. Shake well with lid on to combine.
- Place salad and mint in bowl and dress with a few tablespoons of salad dressing.
- Slice watermelon diagonally into large discs and cut out pieces into desired shapes.
- Stack plate starting with salad on the bottom, then watermelon piece (drizzle a little bit more of the dressing over the watermelon piece, then salt, onion and feta. Repeat two to three times.
