Watermelon Salad with Jalapeño and Lime

Watermelon Salad with Jalapeño and Lime

 

I saw this salad in the Vegetarian Times Farmer's Market Cookbook and I've been meaning to try it all summer.

We love sweet watermelon and I almost always have some cut up in the fridge that we eat at most meals.

 

This recipe can be made ahead of time or right before serving.

 

You whisk together lime juice, lime zest, and olive oil and pour it over 3 cups of cubed watermelon.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

 

When you're ready to serve, place some jalapeño rings in each serving dish and mound watermelon on top.

The original recipe calls for garnishing with sea salt, black sesame seeds, and thinly sliced basil.

We served ours without the garnish, but I think the black seeds and basil would make it extra pretty.

 

It's a zesty, only hint of hot at the very end, version of plain watermelon.

I like it, but don't think the oil was necessary at all.

I think watermelon by itself, or with a little lime and lime zest, works just fine!

 



 

Double click to print as a 5x7 recipe card.

 

Enjoy!

 

Watermelon Granita with Mint and Lime

Watermelon Granita with Mint and Lime

This recipe is modified from the Vegetarian Times' Farmer's Market Cookbook magazine.

It's a great dessert that my boys were only too happy to help me make this weekend.

Brennan attempted a granita from a kids' cookbook a couple of weekends ago, but we didn't have the ingredients on hand.  So he made up his own version (including bottled lime juice and vanilla extract, blech).  Didn't exactly work but he was so proud of his efforts!

I promise the one below is really, really good!

A granita is a semi-frozen dessert that is similar to a sorbet or an Italian ice.

We started by creating a flavored, simple syrup over medium heat.

Brennan heated water, sugar, lime zest, and a mint spring until the sugar was dissolved.

We used this sweetener, but regular sugar will work.

The recipe calls for a long curl of lime zest that you remove before freezing.  Brennan instead decided just to zest the lime.  It worked just fine.

Then we chopped up about 15 cups of watermelon and pureed it in the blender.

Thomas then strained it to get just the juice.  We added lime juice to the watermelon juice.

We removed the mint sprig from the simple syrup and combined it with the watermelon juice, and poured it all into a 9x13 inch baking dish, and popped it uncovered into the freezer.

After 45 minutes I took it out and used a fork to incorporate the frozen parts with the rest of the juice.

Then we checked it and "fluffed" it with a fork every 30 minutes (or so) for 3 hours.

This photo below shows Brennan mixing it up again after about 2 1/2 hours total freezing time.

After about 4 hours freezing time total, it's ready to serve.

At that point, cover the granita with Saran Wrap to keep it from freezing solid.

A wonderful fresh fruit dessert for summer!!

Double click to print as a 5x7 recipe card.

Enjoy!



Watermelon Agua Fresca

Watermelon Agua Fresca

This was one of my favorite drinks I learned to make when we lived in Mexico.

This weekend Thomas had a friend staying over so I made this with breakfast yesterday.

What a hit!

Agua Fresca or Agua de Fruta is sold throughout Mexico - in restaurants, at resorts out by the pool, and by street vendors everywhere.

Thomas got addicted to the mango version when we went to a resort in Manzanillo.

It's super easy and delicious.

You blend 4 cups of a watery, fresh fruit with 1/2 cup of water and 2 Tbsp of sugar. 

The amount of sugar varies with your taste and the sweetness of the fruit.

I usually stick with 2 Tbsp.

Once blended it's important to strain it for pulps or seeds.  I usually end up with just 1/4 c pulp left after smushing it through with a spoon. 

Then garnish with lemon, lime, or mint.

If you have a flavored simple syrup on hand, you can substitute that instead of the water and sugar.

Lime simple syrup is really popular with watermelon.

Other popular fruit varieties are:  cantaloupe, mango, papaya, guava, strawberry, and lime.

Double click on the recipe card to print out as a 5x7 card.

Buen Provecho!