Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Thirsty much? Watermelon Salad = Good

Happy Thursday morning to you darling readers!

When you think of Summer, what comes to mind?...


Lazy days on the beach? Coronas* on a patio? Music festivals up the ying yang? (if there was a music festival up my ying yang I'd have one thing to say, and one thing only... "ouch").

Aside from the above, along with tomatoes, flip flops, and camping, Summer to me means watermelon!


I think it stems from my childhood. I distinctly remember sitting at picnic tables as a young'n with the sun smiling down at us, giant slice of watermelon in one hand, way messed up napkin in the other, spitting seeds directly out onto the grass beneath our feet. Those were the days. The days of Summer when the biggest responsibility you had was making sure the dishes you had to dry after dinner weren't still sopping wet when you put them away in the camper. Oh yeah, and watermelons still had seeds! 

I know it wasn't the classiest of endeavors - eating a watermelon. Bite, chew, spit. But it was fun. And the watermelons weren't franken-fucking-scary engineered products of some group of men hidden away in Monsanto's windowless labs. That being said, I still eat me some tasty watermelon from time to time and after the experience I referred to in this post, this dish just had to be done.

Watermelon Salad with Fresh Mozzarella & Marcona Almonds
(printable recipe) - Serves 4.


Ingredients:

4 C Chopped Watermelon, 1" pieces, refrigerated & cold.
1 Ball Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella (If you can get your hands on Burrata, sub that), drained & roughly torn.
Small Handful of Marcona Almonds, lightly toasted.
Small Handful Fresh Basil.
1 C Creme Fraiche.
4 Tbsp Local Organic Honey.
Coarse Sea Salt.

What to Do:

First, toss the watermelon with a good pinch of salt and place back in the fridge until ready to use.
Next, mix the creme fraiche and the honey together in a bowl until well blended. Adjust to taste. You want it fresh yet slightly sweet.

Lastly, drizzle or spoon the dressing onto a plate, topping with the rest of the ingredients, finishing with the torn mozzarella (or beautiful burrata) and basil.

And that's it!

Eat.

When you think of Summer, what comes to mind?

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*I am well aware that Corona is a terrible beer and not original at all. That being said, I can hardly think of anything I'd rather have whilst camping, laying on a beach, or hiding in the back of my shoe closet** - the only place in my house that really feels cool when it's 35 degrees outside.

**I wish I had a shoe closet. What I really have is a shelf very much in need of a good dusting that has been kind enough to begrudgingly allow me to wedge it in between my collection of under-used hand bags and a skateboard that hasn't been ridden in 4 years. I don't actually sit in there.

This post is linked up with Cast Party Wednesday; Whole Foods Wednesday; Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; The Wednesday Fresh Foods Blog Hop; Tastetastic Thursday; Full Plate Thursday; Showcase Your Talent Thursday; Keep it Real Thursdays; Foodie Friday; Fight Back Friday; Fresh Bites Friday; Wellness Weekend.

9 comments:

  1. Watermelon is so freshing! Love this salad! My name is Cindy and I blog over at Vegetarianmamma.com I wanted to invite you to link up your recipe at our Gluten Free Fridays Recipe Link up party! It happens every Friday and we'd love to have you join us with some of your awesome recipes! You can find this week's link up here: http://vegetarianmamma.com/gluten-free-friday-recipe-link-up-1/
    Thanks, Cindy

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  2. Kristy your so funny about the Corona. It's special when you stick a piece of lime in the bottle, come on.

    Why don't watermelons have seeds anymore... all these poor children not growing up without the fear that a watermelon is going to grow in their stomach because they swallowed a seed.

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    1. it's true diane - i won't actually drink corona without a lime. haha. it's like eating pancakes without syrup - it just doesn't happen.

      i know right! i believe they call the process "genetic engineering". funny that scares me more than a watermelon growing inside my stomach.

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  3. Just want you to know that I've included your recipe in a post this Monday on summer fruit dishes. Have a lovely weekend.

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  4. This looks so much better than the last watermelon/basil recipe I tried! The other one used feta and red onions. Could only really eat it once before I had to throw the entire rest of the bowl out. :(

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    Replies
    1. Aw that's too bad Tracie!! it sucks when dishes don't work out. mrawh.

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