Melon salads

[cathyeats]

Until recently, I had never had a salad made with melon. It just always sounded like dessert to me. But this one won me over. I'll post the recipe, but would love to hear other melon salad ideas (without cheese, please.) I'm obsessed now!

Cantaloupe Salad with Thai Basil

1 scallion, finely diced
juice and zest of 2 limes
salt and pepper
3/4 c. cilantro leaves, chopped finely
1/3 c. Thai basil leaves, chopped finely
¼ cup mint leaves, chopped finely
1 jalapeño or serrano chile, finely minced
1 t. minced fresh ginger
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
One cantaloupe (2 to 2.5 lbs.), chopped into cubes
1 bunch arugula
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the scallion, lime juice, zest, herbs, chile, ginger, garlic, and oil in a bowl. Combine well and add salt and pepper to taste. Gently ix in the melon, and serve on a bed of greens.

[dlaboriel]

Here's one:
[Fresh Melon Salad

2 cups seeded and cubed watermelon
2 cups honeydew melon cubes
2 cups cantaloupe cubes
1 cup seedless green or red grapes
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup flaked coconut
Fresh mint sprigs for garnish


Combine all fruit in a large bowl.

Combine lemonade and honey together and pour over fruit, stir well. Sprinkle with coconut and fresh mint. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

[cathyeats]

Sounds good, but more like dessert! I guess I am thinking of something that has oil + vinegar or citrus to make it more salad-y.

[Jazzmatazz49]

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/re...ipe_id=1809123

This is a good one that is not too desserty.

[Beth]

Both of the recipes on this thread get my two thumbs up --

[RebelYell18]

I'm picky about mixing fruit with other ingredients but this salad from Ooh, Look...blog was awesome!

Rockmelon and Cucumber salad
serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 rockmelon [canteloupe]
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup blueberries

Dressing
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil
1 tblsp red wine vinegar
pinch of caster sugar

Method
1. Cut rockmelon into wedges, then scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard. Cut the flesh away from the skin, then cut into slices
2. Remove skin from tomatoes by cutting a cross in the base of the tomato then plunging into a bowl of boiling water for 1 minute. Peel off the skin, then slice the tomato
3. For the dressing, whisk the olive oil, vinegar and sugar in a bowl with some sea salt and black pepper to taste.
4. Combine the rockmelon, tomato and cucumber in a large bowl. Pour over the dressing and sprinkle with blueberries.

[Valerie226]

I love this one from EW. Salted peanuts work just fine.

Sweet & Tangy Watermelon Salad
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/sw...lon_salad.html

From EatingWell: Summer 2003, The Essential EatingWell Cookbook (2004)
Looks like tomato—surprise, it's watermelon.

6 servings, about 2/3 cup each | Active Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
•2 tablespoons rice vinegar
•2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
•2 cups diced seeded watermelon
•2 cups diced cucumber
•1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
•1/4 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, toasted (see Tip) and coarsely chopped
Preparation
1.Stir together vinegar and sugar in a medium bowl until the sugar almost dissolves. Add watermelon, cucumber and cilantro; toss gently to combine. Just before serving, sprinkle with peanuts.
Nutrition
Per serving : 63 Calories; 3 g Fat; 0 g Sat; 2 g Mono; 0 mg Cholesterol; 8 g Carbohydrates; 2 g Protein; 1 g Fiber; 3 mg Sodium; 164 mg Potassium

1/2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1/2 fruit, 1/2 vegetable, 1/2 fat

Tips & Notes
•Tip: To toast nuts:•Heat a small dry skillet over medium-low heat. Add nuts and cook, stirring, until lightly browned and fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool.

[Beth]

After reading this thread and pulling up that Gourmet recipe, we had that salad again last night -- made with shrimp, the added snow peas (blenched in the cooking water for the shrimp) and watermelon balls as well as the fresh pineapple. If you want a refreshing salad for a summer meal, that one is so good. The snow peas and melon add color as well as texture (love snow peas crunch). The baby pineapples and lobster (if you like -- I actually prefer good shrimp) will take it up to a dish to impress company, but with the added color it is really pretty in a bowl, tastes great and is so much easier.

[swedish cook]

Thanks for posting Cathy! Need to find more recipes for my thriving Thai basil

ETA: Dang! I just noticed "no cheese". Apologies. Do try this without the cheese.

Two years ago I was on a quest to copy the wonderful water melon salad I tasted at a local restaurant.
What they served:

Arugula
Red watermelon cubes (seedless)
Yellow watermelon cubes
Jicama strips
Crumbled feta cheese
Dressing to barely moisten the arugula
A mere dusting of red pepper - almost as a decor as some of it was on the white plate

Green, red, yellow and white made for a nice presentation. The flavors of watermelon & feta matched wonderfully. Jicama gave added crunch. I specifically wanted to re-create the dressing and finally came up with:

1 t raspberry vinegar
1 T EVOO
a few drops Tabasco

NOTE: Like the restaurant I used only enough dressing to barely moisten the arugula.

[Beth]

You could use something like kalamata olives to sub for the feta but still give the saltiness in that salad.

[zoey55]

Made it last nite. Didn't have the arugula, subbed red onion for green, didn't have the mint, but otherwise made the recipe as it stands. We had it with grilled veggie subs and it was the perfect accompaniment.

[jnoel]

I really like this salad...it has oranges and jicama along with the canteloupe, but it's very good.
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/re...cipe_id=222035

[golden1225]

After reading this thread and pulling up that Gourmet recipe, ...

Ok, Beth - I'm lost. Which recipe is the Gourmet one? I'm intrigued!!

[Ann Sanders]

Here is one that I made recently and was surprised how good it was.
Watermelon Salad
Makes 6 cups

whisk together
1/4 c. lime juice
2 T... honey
2 T. chopped fresh mint
1 T. vegetable oil

Combine; toss with:
4 cups watermelon, cubed
1 cup honeydew melon, cubed
1/4 c. Vidalia or other sweet onion, thinly slivered
Lime Dressing
Coarse sea salt
Coarsely ground black pepper

Toss melon mixture with lime dressing to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
I kind of cheated..I bought the melon salad already done from the grocery store. Since it is just the 2 of us, I cut down the recipe.

[swedish cook]

Ok, Beth - I'm lost. Which recipe is the Gourmet one? I'm intrigued!!

I did a search and found a post by Beth from 2003. Here is what I copied down (slightly edited):

Lobster and Pineapple Salad with Basil and Mint
It's best to serve this lobster salad right after you make it, rather than preparing it in advance. If the salad stands for more than half an hour, pineapple enzymes will alter the texture of the lobster meat.
Active time: 30 min - Start to finish: 30 min

2 (1 1/4-lb) live lobsters (Beth used about 3/4 lb shrimp for 2 servings, boiled them then shelled and cooled them)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 firm-ripe baby pineapples with leaves, halved lengthwise (Beth used regular fresh pineapple -- about 1/2 cup for 2 servings)
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil (can easily be reduced by half - Beth used olive oil)
1 garlic clove, smashed
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 teaspoon minced fresh serrano chile, including seeds (Beth used a seeded jalapeno)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Special equipment: a serrated grapefruit knife

Plunge lobsters headfirst into an 8-quart pot of boiling salted water. Loosely cover pot and cook lobsters over moderately high heat 9 minutes from the time they enter water, then transfer with tongs to sink to cool.

Remove meat from claws, joints, and tails. Discard (or save for another use) tomalley, any roe, and shells. Cut meat into 1/2-inch pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

While lobsters are cooling, cut pulp in 1 or 2 large pieces out of each pineapple half with grapefruit knife, then discard core and cut pulp into 1/2-inch pieces. Scrape juice and any remaining pulp from pineapple shells with a spoon (to form 1/4-inch-thick shells) into a fine sieve set over a bowl and drain until you have 2 to 3 tablespoons juice, about 2 minutes. Discard solids.

Cook oil and garlic in a small saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, until garlic is golden, 2 to 3 minutes, then discard garlic. Add garlic oil to pineapple juice along with lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Add shallot, bell pepper, pineapple pieces, chile, and herbs. Toss lobster with pineapple mixture and serve mounded in pineapple shells.

Cooks' note:
If you can't find baby pineapples, you can substitute 1 cup pineapple pieces from a firm-ripe regular pineapple.

Makes 4 servings.

Gourmet
May 2002

Posted by Beth:
I was planning on making it as written, but while cutting some watermelon for the kids, I decided to use watermelon balls, pineapple chunks, basil and a little mint. I also used lime juice since it was handy, but I don't think that made much difference. DH and I loved it. So much so that we used some of the remaining pineapple to make a variation on the following salad for dinner tonight. We used boiled shrimp in place of the lobster, a jalapeno since we had one from the garden (seeded it since it smelled potent), used about half the amount of oil and used olive oil, and added some blanched snow peas cuz I felt like it. It was so good and so pretty!

[Beth]

That is the recipe I was talking about -- it was one of two in the link I posted above and I wasn't thinking that the connection might not be clear. Sorry for the confusion. While I am sure it is tasty and impressive as written, it's so good in the modified version that I doubt I will ever find out.