Delicious, refreshing lunch.

acpgee

Hooray. I could buy a quarter of a gigantic watermelon from the Turkish greengrocer. They were so huge I think I would have struggled to even carry a whole one home.

Nonetheless tried to minimize required refrigerator space by breaking it down to cubes, removing rind and seeds and fitting snugly into large refrigerator boxes.

I bought a huge bunch of mint from the Turkish grocer too, so need to think of how to use that after the feta is gone. I have enough feta for two more servings of salad watermelon/feta/mint salad for the household. Maybe I can use the mint for some SE Asian salads?

sefajane1

acpgee wrote: »

Hooray. I could buy a quarter of a gigantic watermelon from the Turkish greengrocer. They were so huge I think I would have struggled to even carry a whole one home.

Nonetheless tried to minimize required refrigerator space by breaking it down to cubes, removing rind and seeds and fitting snugly into large refrigerator boxes.

I bought a huge bunch of mint from the Turkish grocer too, so need to think of how to use that after the feta is gone. I have enough feta for two more servings of salad watermelon/feta/mint salad for the household. Maybe I can use the mint for some SE Asian salads?

If you have some natural yoghurt you can use that instead of feta in the salad or, I also make a melon, yoghurt & mint smoothie (just blitz it all in a food processor), it's delicious 👍

Katmary71

acpgee wrote: »

Hooray. I could buy a quarter of a gigantic watermelon from the Turkish greengrocer. They were so huge I think I would have struggled to even carry a whole one home.

Nonetheless tried to minimize required refrigerator space by breaking it down to cubes, removing rind and seeds and fitting snugly into large refrigerator boxes.

I bought a huge bunch of mint from the Turkish grocer too, so need to think of how to use that after the feta is gone. I have enough feta for two more servings of salad watermelon/feta/mint salad for the household. Maybe I can use the mint for some SE Asian salads?

According to a book on herbs I have mint is good in teas, jellies, and sauces. Add leaves to cold fruits, ice creams, and salads. Use in chicken dishes, stir into tabbouleh (love!), potatoes, or peas (love this too). Blend with yogurt or serve with cucumber slices or potato salad. Of course, you can make hot or cold mint tea! If you can get squares of feta, just wrapping a leave around a square (kind you can get at middle Eastern stores) of feta is a great snack.

sefajane1

Katmary71 wrote: »

acpgee wrote: »

Hooray. I could buy a quarter of a gigantic watermelon from the Turkish greengrocer. They were so huge I think I would have struggled to even carry a whole one home.

Nonetheless tried to minimize required refrigerator space by breaking it down to cubes, removing rind and seeds and fitting snugly into large refrigerator boxes.

I bought a huge bunch of mint from the Turkish grocer too, so need to think of how to use that after the feta is gone. I have enough feta for two more servings of salad watermelon/feta/mint salad for the household. Maybe I can use the mint for some SE Asian salads?

According to a book on herbs I have mint is good in teas, jellies, and sauces. Add leaves to cold fruits, ice creams, and salads. Use in chicken dishes, stir into tabbouleh (love!), potatoes, or peas (love this too). Blend with yogurt or serve with cucumber slices or potato salad. Of course, you can make hot or cold mint tea! If you can get squares of feta, just wrapping a leave around a square (kind you can get at middle Eastern stores) of feta is a great snack.

I'm putting fresh mint in absolutely everything at the moment. It's plentiful at the veg' market at the moment (probably for the next 2 months too). I've chopped and frozen so many bunches for the freezer so we can have it year round. Same for fresh parsley and purslane, one of my freezers is full of bags of chopped green stuff 😁

acpgee

I've now tried the watermelon/feta/mint combination with balsamic vinegar instead of pomegranate molasses. I think I actually prefer pomegranate molasses, which is also cheaper.

Thanks for the tip about freezing the mint. I will try chopping and freezing in ice cube trays which I find to be a handy portion size for other things like frozen ginger. I move to ziplock bags once the cubes are frozen.

Pipsqueak1965

You can definitely buy whole/half/quarter watermelons in the supermarkets where I live (south east England). I am going to try this recipe very soon (put some pomegranate molasses on the shopping order already, and have some mint in the garden ). Another really nice supper salad is a mixture of peas, edamame, crumbled feta, mint, dressed with olive oil, white wine vinegar and lemon juice, salt and pepper.

sefajane1

Pipsqueak1965 wrote: »

You can definitely buy whole/half/quarter watermelons in the supermarkets where I live (south east England). I am going to try this recipe very soon (put some pomegranate molasses on the shopping order already, and have some mint in the garden ). Another really nice supper salad is a mixture of peas, edamame, crumbled feta, mint, dressed with olive oil, white wine vinegar and lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Mmmm, peas! I miss them sooo much 😔 We can only get frozen peas and they are like bullets, no matter how long I cook them for so I've given up buying them 😢

acpgee

Try my mom's method for cooking frozen peas to go with asian food. Buy the smallest youngest peas you can find. Sautee a clove of pressed, grated or chopped garlic in a little butter on medium heat. When the garlic starts to colour toss in the frozen peas and a large pinch of salt. Serve when warmed through. Peas should remain bright green. We had this last night as a side.

acpgee

It might be hard to find watermelon in central London that is not cute up and packaged in little plastic boxes, but smaller whole Canary melons are available. Not as pretty as watermelon but good too.

acpgee

Yet another variation. We ran out of feta, but I googled and found a version of this salad with white cheddar that I am trying out.

sefajane1

I forgot to post these photo's.

sefajane1

The first one is melon with lovely crisp peppery roket leaves. It was so good ☺️

The second one was was my dinner tonight; melon, cucumber, feta, black pepper and Ryvita crumbs sprinkled on top.

I also made it with fresh apricots, feta, mint and black pepper a few days ago but can't find the photo. I highly recommend using apricots if no melon available. It was another level of scrumptious 😁

acpgee

And so not to be wasteful, a jar pickled watermelon rinds. We ate this at a restaurant once that specialized in food of the American south.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/sep/08/watermelon-rind-skin-pickle-recipe-waste-not-tom-hunt

sefajane1

acpgee wrote: »

And so not to be wasteful, a jar pickled watermelon rinds. We ate this at a restaurant once that specialized in food of the American south.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/sep/08/watermelon-rind-skin-pickle-recipe-waste-not-tom-hunt

I eat them straight, just a bit of lemon juice and salt. Nothing edible gets wasted in this household 😂

nooboots

missysippy930 wrote: »

acpgee wrote: »

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.

You can get whole watermelons here but personally I find them awkward for storing in the fridge and difficult to maneuver around the worktop when cutting up

acpgee

To get whole large watermelons in central London I need to trek to the Turkish supermarket that sells them whole, halved and quartered. But one of my local supermarkets stocks the whole mini watermelons which are seedless and the size of a cantaloupe. Nice not to have to consume all the single use plastics sold with precut watermelon cubes.

sefajane1

I picked up (yes, I struggled!) a 12.5 kilo watermelon today at the veg' market for the equivalent of 14p (Sterling) / kilo. We've still got half of a 9 kilo one in the fridge but I had to buy it because now's the time the price will begin to increase.
I'm getting a little bit gittery about what I'll fill up on once watermelon isn't an option 😕 It's been my diet saviour so far this summer (I'm a volume eater)..

acpgee

We had some blue cheese that needed using up. Googled and found versions of this salad with blue cheese instead of feta. I think I do prefer feta though.

weatherking2019

I had NO IDEA it's hard getting a whole watermelon 🍉🍉🍉in UK. It's everywhere here in the US. And compared to Japan where they sell PERFECT ROUND melons for $$$, it's GINORMOUS and cheap!
My kids alone can eat half of a 10kg melon in one serving!! I love watermelon too but been limiting since it's rather high in carbs
Thanks for the ideas! I have a street party this weekend. I will be bringing watermelon, feta, mint salad! (Mint is taking over my garden this year!!!)