Description
Minty watermelon salad with cranberry goat cheese is sweet, juicy and delicious. Perfectly refreshing summer salad.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 5 1/2 pound watermelon (I used 1/2 a watermelon)
- 1 English cucumber (the long thin kind, de-seeded and cut in 1-inch pieces)
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped basil, plus extra for garnish
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped mint, plus extra for garnish
- 1 package baby or regular arugula lettuce (optional)
- 1 4-ounce container of cranberry goat cheese (or plain g.c. or feta)
For the dressing:
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (approx. 3 limes)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, more if needed
- Pinch of salt
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Instructions
- You’ll need a sharp knife to cut the rind (outer skin) from the watermelon. Gently slide your knife into the rind until it hits (but doesn’t cut through) the watermelon.
- Once you’ve removed the rind, make thick vertical cuts along the watermelon to cut it into sections. Then take each section and cut into thick strips, rotate the pile, and dice it into cubes from there. This is a salad so bite-sized pieces work best. Put the watermelon in a large mixing bowl. My instructional video shows all the steps very well.
- Cut the cucumber in half across the middle so you have two long halves. Then cut the halves in half vertically. Gently spoon out the soft seeds and discard. Then cut the cucumber into approximately 1” pieces. Put the cucumber in the bowl with the watermelon.
- For the dressing: cut the limes in half and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. Add the honey to a measuring cup and whisk in the lime juice. Then slowly whisk in the olive oil until you can feel it emulsifying a bit. Add a pinch of salt, mix again, and you’re done.
- I used fresh basil and mint for the herbs. You’ll need a total of ONE cup of fresh herbs. You can use all mint, or all basil or a little of both. I ended up chopping one cup of each so I had enough for tossing with the salad and extra for garnish. If you don’t think you’ll need to have extra just go with the one cup total. You can chop it down semi-fine like I did, or if you like it a little bigger you can do that too.
- If you’re using the arugula, toss a small amount of dressing with the arugula – just enough to coat the lettuce. Toss to coat and set aside a minute.
- Add mint, basil and dressing to watermelon bowl and toss with hands to coat well. I found tossing with your hands works better – I had gloves so used those.
- When you are ready to serve the salad: Spread the arugula out on a large platter. Start adding the watermelon salad to the top of the arugula. I found it was better to add by the handful. The watermelon generates a lot of water at the bottom of the mixing bowl. We don’t want to dump it on the arugula and oversaturate it. Final touch: sprinkle some cranberry goat cheese on top of the salad. Serve immediately.
- Do not start mixing and assembling the salad until you are about to serve it.
