When we made this watermelon salad for a friend, he gave it a lovely compliment: “This tastes,” he said, “like a summer garden smells.” It’s refreshing, sweet, salty, herbal, and tangy—a great antidote to a hot summer day.
Yield:
8 servingsIngredients
6–7 cups cubed watermelon (1-inch chunks, from an 8- to 9-pound melon)
1 seedless (English) cucumber, peeled or unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
5 ounces fresh feta cheese, crumbled
Instructions
In a large bowl, gently toss the watermelon with the cucumber, mint, basil, and salt. Sprinkle with lime juice and cayenne, if you’re using it, and toss again. Just before serving, top with feta.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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