watermelon salad with goats cheese, cress, mint and vodka

I fell completely in love with this watermelon salad with goat’s cheese, cress, mint, and vodka when I tasted it recently at a restaurant. It’s simply refreshing and absolutely perfect for a hot summer’s day or night.

In terms of quantities, it really was a bit of this and a bit of that. So I am going to list the ingredients with an estimate of quantities, but this serves as a very rough guideline, and depends on the number of servings you need to make. You can also adjust to taste, after all, there are no rules.

what you need to make this salad:

• Watermelon – about 4 wedges per person
• chevre/goats cheese for each serving (feta could also work)
• watercress

DRESSING:

• mint (about 3 leaves per portion)
• sugar
• white wine vinegar
• extra virgin olive oil
• vodka

Stefan was specific about being generous with the vodka so this is what I did:

In a pestle and mortar, grind up the dressing ingredients to the volume that you require. I added about 1 part vinegar to 2 parts olive oil and about 1 teaspoon of sugar for 2 servings. In terms of vodka, add a good splash but check the taste as you go. It’s possible that I added a bit much, but vodka has little flavour. It’s there to deliver a punch.

Cut the watermelon into chunks or wedges and lay flat. I bought and tried for the first time; orange seedless watermelon which intrigued me. I love new fruit. It tastes exactly the same and adds a bit of colour. Drizzle the salad dressing all over the pieces and allow them to macerate ever so slightly. Do this shortly before you serve as you don’t want the melon to get too soggy. Pile a few wedges on a plate individually, or a large serving platter and sprinkle over broken-up chunks and bits of goat’s cheese. Scatter over fresh watercress and a few small mint leaves as garnish.

Voila! a delicious ‘spiked’ summer salad. Thanks for sharing Stefan, I hope this sort of lives up to your lovely creation.