Delicious, refreshing lunch.

sefajane1
sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
in Recipes
Watermelon, Turkish low fat white cheese and fresh mint salad. Yum! πŸ˜€7kvisu4ho0yr.jpg
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Replies

  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    Honeyacid wrote: Β»
    I've never though of adding watermelon and cheese together. Regardless, it's probably a delicious food combination. Especially because of the fresh mint taste. :)

    It's a typical summer salad here in Turkey but I was always the same, I didn't think melon and cheese would complement each other but as I had all the 3 elements in the fridge fresh from the market I just tried it and love it πŸ˜€

    I also put watermelon in a yoghurt and purslane salad a few days ago and that was great too πŸ˜ƒ
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
    I just need to grab some fresh mint & make this over the weekend as I've got feta and watermelon already. Thanks for the idea!
  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    @acpgee that all looks lovely πŸ‘

    @seltzermint555 I can believe that I've waited so long before making this. All those wasted summers past 😁
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,602 Member
    It's a terrific salad to bring to a BBQ because if you leave the mint leaves whole, it doesn't look worse for wear sitting out in the sun for a few hours. Some recipes add olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar. I usually drizzle with a little olive oil.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,602 Member
    If you need to stretch the ingredients you've got on hand, or prefer a more neutral taste, a little cubed cucumber goes well with this combination.
  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    acpgee wrote: Β»
    It's a terrific salad to bring to a BBQ because if you leave the mint leaves whole, it doesn't look worse for wear sitting out in the sun for a few hours. Some recipes add olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar. I usually drizzle with a little olive oil.

    I know sometimes oil is added also pomegranate molasses (nar ekşili) but I wanted to keep the calories as low as possible. I'm glad I did as it was perfect.
    It's market day again tomorrow so I'll get another watermelon (this one was a 10 kilo monster and it's only lasted less than a week!) and I've plenty of white cheese and mint so this salad will be my lunch every day until melon season is over, in 3 months time πŸ‘
  • OooohToast
    OooohToast Posts: 257 Member
    Looks all sorts of yum OP !
  • HereToLose50
    HereToLose50 Posts: 154 Member
    This sounds so good right now. I've had some version of this in a restaurant before and it's amazing.
  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    acpgee wrote: Β»
    Stumbled on another variation of the watermelon and cheese salad tonight. The hubby ordered it in an Italian restaurant and this version was watermelon, ricotta salata, fennel fronds (mostly on the bottom) and finely sliced chilli. Ricotta salata is a matured hard cheese typically grated over pasta a la Norma in Sicily. It's not like normal ricotta that has a cottage cheese texture. If you can't find ricotta salata locally, a young pecorino would be a good substitute. Or any young hard cheese with an acidic tang.

    tpnfip3zz42e.jpeg

    Ooh, that looks and sounds lovely πŸ˜€
  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    acpgee wrote: Β»
    Used OP's suggestion of a drizzle of pomegranate molasses which is way better than my normal addition of a drizzle of olive oil. The pomegranate molasses adds complexity. My favourite version yet. This salad was layered, not mixed. A bed of watermelon cubes, some crumbled feta on top, a scatter of mint leaves, then a drizzle pomegranate molasses.
    4o2aq9doq626.jpeg

    Argh @acpgee, you've tempted me now to splash out on the extra calories for the nar ekşili πŸ˜±πŸ˜‚
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,602 Member
    We didn't much watermelon leftover but stretched it with a peach and a little cucumber. Added black pepper. The only thing I will do differently next time is to cool the peach before adding to salad, if you blanch or microwave the peach to peel it.

    ma8zac5sa4qp.jpeg
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,602 Member
    We're going to a restaurant tonight near the Turkish grocer so maybe I can get a whole watermelon instead of those silly little plastic packets of cut up watermelon sold in supermarkets in the UK. If not, I am going to try this with halved green seedless grapes and cubes of cucumber that I've got in the fridge. I need to use up that open packet of feta. Might need to buy mint too, because the plant on my window sill has been cut back pretty severely lately.
  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    acpgee wrote: Β»
    We're going to a restaurant tonight near the Turkish grocer so maybe I can get a whole watermelon instead of those silly little plastic packets of cut up watermelon sold in supermarkets in the UK. If not, I am going to try this with halved green seedless grapes and cubes of cucumber that I've got in the fridge. I need to use up that open packet of feta. Might need to buy mint too, because the plant on my window sill has been cut back pretty severely lately.

    Watermelon is so cheap here at the moment - I paid the equivalent of 14 pence/kilo the otger day for a huge 9.5 kilo beast 😁 The only downside is finding the fridge space for it once it's been started on 😀 I'm eating and drinking so much melon every day now πŸ˜‚
    Was it nice with the peaches? They're a reasonably good price at the moment so I might get some at the veg' market tomorrow. My husband won't eat them unpeeled because he doesn't like the skin texture but he can eat them peeled. I refuse to peel his bloody fruit for him 🀣 Can you share your microwave method please? Then I can teach him how to do it πŸ˜‰
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    acpgee wrote: Β»
    We're going to a restaurant tonight near the Turkish grocer so maybe I can get a whole watermelon instead of those silly little plastic packets of cut up watermelon sold in supermarkets in the UK. If not, I am going to try this with halved green seedless grapes and cubes of cucumber that I've got in the fridge. I need to use up that open packet of feta. Might need to buy mint too, because the plant on my window sill has been cut back pretty severely lately.

    Don’t they sell whole watermelons in the UK routinely? That makes me sad. We have them in the US. Great big giant ones down to personal size ones a little bigger than an average size cantaloupe. The 4th of July is a huge watermelon picnic item here. I love this time of the year with the exotic melons tat are available. All the great fruits that are available actually. I bought a few pounds of Bing cherries yesterday on sale.Your recipes are amazing, thanks for posting them.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,602 Member
    Unfortunately in central London supermarkets fruit and veg is in little packets with totally unncessary plastic. Sigh.

    For peeling peaches I think the blanching method works best. I would do the blanching and cooling steps for your whole batch of peaches at one time so you can just peel one when you want one.
    https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-peel-peaches-2217611

    But here is the microwave method I tried today.
    https://cookiesandhostas.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/peeling-peaches/
  • sefajane1
    sefajane1 Posts: 322 Member
    acpgee wrote: Β»
    Unfortunately in central London supermarkets fruit and veg is in little packets with totally unncessary plastic. Sigh.

    For peeling peaches I think the blanching method works best. I would do the blanching and cooling steps for your whole batch of peaches at one time so you can just peel one when you want one.
    https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-peel-peaches-2217611

    But here is the microwave method I tried today.
    https://cookiesandhostas.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/peeling-peaches/

    So just like tomatoes then? Simple enough, even for him 🀣

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