marinated melon ball and herb salad
Keeping it simple but technical with this recipe. If you're like me and find joy in the simple things of life, you'll really enjoy this salad. Forming each melon ball is so satisfying and stress relieving. Snacking along the way is highly recommended. The herbs I used are chives and mint. I also added pineapple mint, and apple mint from my home garden. The melon balls are then mixed together with the herbs, salt and lots of olive oil. Once they're done marinating in the fridge, they come out of the bag perfectly sweet and savory and ready to eat. I recommend mixing it up with watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew. Funny thing about this picture is I thought I had grabbed a honeydew, but turns out the melon had the rind of a honeydew and the flesh of a cantaloupe!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Marination Time: 3 hours
The Goods:
1 seedless watermelon
1 cantaloupe
1 honeydew
1/4 cup chives, sliced
3 tbsp mint, chopped
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup EVOO
1 cup melon juice
The Method:
Cut your melons in half and discard any seeds from your cantaloupe or honeydew.
Using a melon baller, form balls from the flesh of each melon. Make sure to use as much of the melon as possible. Place the melon balls in a salad bowl. Save the leftover rinds.
Scoop the remaining melon flesh into a juicer. Strain with a fine mesh strainer (you will have more than a cup left - I like to save the leftover juice, for smoothies, popsicles, or cocktails).
Slice the chives and chop the mint. Add mint, chives, salt, EVOO, and melon juice to the bowl with the melon balls. Mix well, but gently. Make sure to really incorporate the salt.
Divide melon balls between two, one gallon ziplock bags. One at a time, submerge the bags of salad into a bowl of water. Apply some gentle pressure around bottom of the bag where the salad is sitting, submerging the bag further until just the top is outside of the water. Make sure all of air is out of bag, then completely seal. This process will make the bag airtight.
Let the melon balls marinate for about 3 hours in the fridge.
Serve alongside your favorite protein at a summer barbecue or as a side dish for your next park hang. Enjoy.
