3 ways with Watermelon - Pizza Cooler Salad #summer #healthy #inspiration #raw

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.”
Charles Bowden

When summer hits you splat in the face before time, with temperatures over 40C already kissing you in early April and May, it’s only summer fruits you can turn to. These days I’m mesmerized by watermelons. They’re available in plenty {read falling off carts, piled high on roadsides, rolling off shelves} and are great to chomp on summer through. Use them simply as nibbling off the rind, or get a little creative with them. It’s a real fun fruit to play with, and you can do so much and more with them.

Here are a few very simple ways to enjoy natures bounty. My most recent and fun way was with this watermelon pizza inspired by @curlew_and_dragons post on Instagram. One look at it a few days ago, and that’s just all I wanted to do.Here’s what I did – Cut horizontal 1/2″ slices/circles, then cut them into pie slices. I had some left over whipped mascarpone that I added chia seeds to, and plumped it up. I piped it on to make things look fun. I used a melon baller on a few kiwis, threw on some diced mangoes, used some very precious foraged mulberries, and some fresh mint. That’s the only herb that seems to be surviving happily in this heat. I did this again with with mangoes, melons balls, phalsa berries, litchis and goat cheese. A drizzle of maple syrup too!

Served on the side was a watermelon kiwi lime cooler – watermelon {seeds included}, all the leftover kiwi, a dash of lime, some rock salt, a little brown sugar. Chilled and yum! Use a powerful blender like the Thermomix or Artisan Power Plus Blender with Thermal Control Jar from KitchenAid {my new favourite helper in the kitchen}, and life is a breeze!

Once you get the hang of the spiralizer, you are going to want to get all your vegetables in a twirl, quite literally. It’s really addictive and such a pretty way to serve salads. Once you figure it out, salads will never be the same again. I loved the way this one turned out, or rather twirled out. The flavor combination was great and it looked so pretty. Recipe follows.

Greek Spiralizer Salad

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Prep Time 15

Total Time 15

Servings 2

Ingredients

For Salad

1 zucchini
1 cucumber
1/4 watermelon balled
1/2 cupwalnuts (toasted roughly broken up): 1/2 cup
1/2 cup feta : 1/2 cup crumbled
Fresh mint

For Dressing

Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Salad

Set up the KitchenAid Stand Mixer with the spiralizer attachment with the medium sized noodle blade fitting.
Put the zucchini through it, followed by the cucumber. You could even do 2 cucumbers instead.
Place in a large bowl with remaining ingredients except feta, pour over salad dressing and toss gently to mix. Adjust seasoning if required. Scatter over with crumbled feta and fresh mint.
hill for an hour before serving to allow the flavors to mature.

Dressing

Place everything in a bowl, and whisk to mix with a fork. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

The above picture says it all. Put everything one by one into the tube of the Kitchen Aid cold press juicer, and wait for the magic to happen!
Watermelon Kiwi Ginger Mint Cooler
1 small watermelon
2 kiwis
Juice of 2 limes
2″ piece mango ginger {or 1/2 ” piece plain ginger}
Handful of fresh mint leaves

Chop up the watermelon and kiwi to 1″ pieces. Scrub the ginger well, and roughly break up.
Gradually feed through chute of the KitchenAid Slow Juicer Attachment with mint, running the KitchenAid Stand Mixer at speed Once the juice is extracted, stir lime into it. Add a dash of honey and black rock salt if desired. Chill well before serving.