Watermelon Wedge Salad

One thing I love about living in Egypt is the seasons. Whilst the seasons may not be completely weather defined as they are in other parts of the world, it could be argued that they are defined by the availability of local produce.

Various fruits and vegetables only make an appearance for a few months a year, as they should do. This gives us the chance to eat them, almost to excess, until we're fed up of them and usually by this point, they're heading out of season for the year.

The summer fruit season in Egypt shines a light on watermelon, mangoes, plums and prickly pears to name a few. I will be focusing as many blog posts as I can on the produce that is in season as that is when it's at its best and of course easiest to find. 

Living in Egypt you cannot depend on imported goods, as they have the tendency to disappear for months on end. ANYWAY, as you can see from the title of this blog post the starring role of this recipe is the glorious, juicy watermelon.

 Arguably the perfect summer fruit on it's own, i'm bringing you an idea to mix things up a bit. This recipe is quick, easy, delicious and perfect to share with company. While I have chosen to use red watermelon in this recipe of course any watermelon variety would be just as delicious and add extra colour to your dinner table. 

Now, speaking of imported ingredients, I have used an imported feta cheese in this recipe mainly because I LOVE a bit of real feta cheese. Egyptian feta cheese tends to be the same consistency of cream cheese and will not work in this recipe. You need to use a hard white cheese, I found my feta in Oscars supermarkets (either Heliopolis or New Cairo) but i've also seen it in Gourmet and Seoudi. If you can't find imported feta you can use Egyptian white cheese which has a similar taste and consistency.

We all know watermelon is at its best when thoroughly chilled so I like to keep mine in the fridge over night before preparing this recipe so that it's ready to eat as soon as i've added the other ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 watermelon (chilled)
1 red onion (finely sliced)
1 bunch of fresh mint (roughly chopped)
half a cup of olive oil
100g of hard white cheese/feta (crumbled)
balsamic vinegar (optional)


1) Thoroughly clean and dry your watermelon then slice a small section off the side to make a flat surface. Rest your melon on the flat surface you have cut and this will help to keep your melon stable on your chopping board.
2) Slice your watermelon into round large slices about 2/3 cm thick, you are looking for each slice to resemble a circle/pizza shape. If you are working with half of a watermelon, cut into large half circles and continue as below.
3) Once you have cut your melon into large circular slices you can cut the melon into wedges, here is where you can choose how big you'd like your wedges. I like to cut mine into quarters if my guests are really hungry or eighths if i'm serving this as a snack.
4)Arrange your slices onto a plate/serving board to resemble a pizza and scatter the red onion, mint and white cheese over the top of your wedges. Ive also added rocket to mine.
5) Drizzle your wedges with olive oil and balsamic if desired and serve immediately. You can store this salad in the fridge for up to 1 hour to keep it nice and cool until you are ready to serve but its best served as soon as it's ready.

Let me know in the comments what your favourite way to use watermelon is!


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