I am strangely attracted to odd food combinations – or at least those that sound odd at first blush. Not, you know, peanut butter and tuna, or something. But, for example, I recently ate a bacon lollipop. A couple weeks ago I tried a blackberry sorbet floating in a chai and earl grey tea broth.
When this watermelon salad first made its’ way into my recipe book a few years ago, the flavour combination sounded a little puzzling to me. Not the least of my problems with it was the fact that I really, really, really hate melons. It’s a fundamental aversion, likely hereditary, based on the fact that they make my dad cringe, and my sister and I both order the fruit salad sans melon at our local breakfast joint, and that my daughter ejects melon from her hungry little gob faster than I can come out with the mommy-classic “try it, you’ll like it!”
But somehow, the combination of sweet watermelon with salty feta, fresh mint and the earthy crunch of toasted pine nuts in this salad tastes like summer. It doesn’t really taste like melon anymore, but something much, much better.
And it tastes like more, too.
- Quantities will depend on how many people you're serving. I find half a melon serves the 2.5 of us nicely.
- 1/2 watermelon, rind removed and cubed
- 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
- Handful of fresh mint, julienned
- Healthy glug of olive oil
- Cracked black pepper
- This is a pretty easy one, folks. Just combine all the ingredients into a pretty, summer-BBQ-worthy bowl and toss. Taste to see if you'd like to add a little more of anything, and adjust the quantities to suit your tastes.
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