Refreshing & delicious watermelon, avocado and cucumber strewn with fresh basil, crumbled feta and spiced pepitas.
Fun Summer Salad
Watermelon Avocado Cucumber Salad
I know this is my third salad recipe in the last 6 posts, but what can I say? It’s summer and I love salad! Plus watermelon, cucumbers and fresh basil scream Summer in my book. Add avocado cut with a melon baller and you have a salad that’s as delightful to serve as it is to eat. Lime juice and good quality olive oil serve as the simple dressing along with a sprinkle of salt & pepper. Did you ever eat salted watermelon as a kid? I did, and now I remember why – it’s delicious!
That’s the sum total of the original salad which I think would be delicious as is. But I was test driving this recipe for a brunch with my Gourmet Group, so I decided to experiment.
Greens, Feta & Spiced Pepitas
My vision was to expand this salad by adding some lightly dressed baby lettuce under the watermelon, avocado and cucumbers. This gives the salad a little more volume and provides a base for the juicy watermelon.
Feta is a classic watermelon salad pairing, so that seemed like a natural addition. I also love nuts in my salads and decided to give spiced pepitas a whirl. Our hosts are serving a Mexican-themed waffle and egg main dish, which pointed me toward pepitas. The extra crunch and tiny pop of heat worked perfectly!
Final Flourish
My final flourish was to give the salad a liberal drizzle of white lemon balsamic vinegar. This vinegar actually has a syrupy texture, like a vinegar reduction. While this is completely optional, it adds a wonderful little sweet/tart zing. You can purchase White Lemon Balsamic Vinegar from Vinaigrette’s online store or at their location in Edina, MN.
Make your own: You can create a similar result by reducing white balsamic vinegar until it reaches a syrupy consistency. Then cool before using.
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Watermelon Avocado Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 1/2 cups uniformly cubed seedless watermelon
- 1 small thinly sliced cucumber
- 1 1/2 ripe avocados scooped into small balls with a melon baller
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- juice from one lime, divided
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil
- 4 oz. baby lettuce I used Revol romaine crunch
- kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta
- freshly torn basil leaves for garnish
- lemon balsamic vinegar for drizzling optional
Spiced Pepitas
- 1 cup Pepitas raw hulled green pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground Ancho chiles or chili powder
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Spiced Pepitas
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss spiced pepita ingredients together in a bowl. Spread on a baking sheet and bake 7-8 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool.
Salad Assembly
- Toss baby lettuce with 1 tablespoon lime juice and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Line platter with lightly dressed greens.
- Prepare watermelon, cucumber, and avocado and place in a large bowl. Pour remaining lime juice over salad and toss gently. Then add remaining olive oil, chopped basil, salt and pepper and toss gently. Arrange mixture over greens on large plate. Scatter feta, spiced pepitas and freshly torn basil over salad. Sprinkle with a little additional salt and a few grinds of pepper. If desired, drizzle with lemon balsamic vinegar.
It looks delicious and so colorful.