This recipe is a really simple refreshing salad. Good on its own or as part of a BBQ. Watermelon makes the perfect summer food as it has a really high water content and is naturally sweet so pretty compelling to eat. It is certainly a food I crave once the temperatures rises above twenty. Not that it is a common occurrence in this country though… And it is certainly not a fruit which in on my mind in Dec when we are busy eating oranges and drinking mulled wine.
When I spotted a nice looking watermelon in the shop I immediately thought of this salad combination. Especially since I hadn’t enjoyed it in ages. I always have some feta cheese in my fridge simply #becauseeverythingtastesbetterwithfeta. I love adding some of its saltiness to salads, as a topping on homemade pizza or on roasted veg. If you are following me on Instagram, you probably know this buy now. We also have some mint growing in the garden and a various amount of seeds can always be found in my pantry. If you don’t have mint, basil will work really well too.
Apart from being a totally yummy summery fruit, watermelon also has a couple of useful health benefits. Because it is naturally sweet and because we nowadays seem to associate sweet things as being bad for us, many might avoid watermelon because they believe it is high in sugar. The fact is though that the fruit is almost 96% water and a cup of diced watermelon is only 9g of sugar compared to your 100g bag of sweets which might be about 40g of sugar. Due to its really high water content it is the perfect food for warm summer weather we inevitably sweat more and thus fore need to increase our fluid intake.
It contains sodium which we also tend to loose when we sweat. To top it all off it is high in Vitamin C and Vitamin A both strong antioxidants which are never a bad idea, which will hopefully protect us from aging damages from the sun. See nature really has created cleaver ways of foods to work with the seasons and according to our varying needs.
You’ll have this salad done in a matter of minutes, perfect while someone else is sorting out the BBQ. Make a much of it as you like depending on how many people you intend to feed. I enjoyed my bowl all to myself as a refreshing lunch. Probably no harm in adding a few more greens on the side if you so wish. Turn any leftover watermelon that you don’t use for the salad in to a smoothie the following day. (Recipe to follow!)
Watermelon Salad with Feta & Fresh Mint
Serves 2
2 cups fresh watermelon, diced, seeds removed if needed
70 g good quality feta cheese
a few sprigs of fresh mint leaves
some raw pumpkin seeds – or use any other nut or seed you fancy
Place the diced watermelon in a large bowl. Mix with a few shredded mint leaves and top with some crumbled feta cheese and a few pumpkin seeds. As easy as that!
0 Comments