Watermelon Avocado Cucumber Salad
A light salad of watermelon cubes, avocado balls, thinly sliced cucumber, fresh basil and baby greens, simply dressed then finished with feta and spiced pepitas.
Servings: 4
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.
Notes
You can order White Lemon Balsamic Vinegar from the link in this post or make your own by reducing white balsamic vinegar (approximately 3/4 cup to 1 cup) until it reaches a syrupy consistency. Then cool before using. This will make more than you need for this recipe, but will leave you extra for drizzling on other salads, roasted veggies or even fresh strawberries.