Watermelons, Avocados, and Cheese! Oh My!

When it comes to cooking, I’m the Cowardly Lion. Even though I love tasting new foods, I find the cooking process to be quite daunting. Because I’ve had very little experience in the kitchen, I decided to pick a simple recipe. I searched through my mom’s cookbooks, attempting to find something that even I couldn’t ruin.  My eye was immediately drawn to a cookbook entitled Soul Food Love by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams. I thumbed through it until I stumbled across a recipe called “New-School ‘Fruit’ Salad.” The salad contained avocados, feta cheese, tomatoes, and watermelon. Watermelon and Feta cheese? I thought. What on earth could that combination possibly taste like? In the summer, we normally have all of these ingredients in our refrigerator, and when my dad grows tomatoes, our counter overflows, so I believed that the salad would be a perfect summer treat.

The vibrant colors of the salad reminded me of the snow-dusted poppy field in The Wizard of Oz. The salad was delicious! I ate half of it all by myself, and my dad finished the other half before my brother was given a chance to taste it. The watermelon is the star of the dish. The creaminess of the avocado and feta cheese complement the crunchiness of the watermelon. The feta cheese added a hint of salt, making the watermelon seem even sweeter. The avocado and the tomatoes acted more as texture; their flavors were overwhelmed by the watermelon and cheese. The dressing made the salad slightly tangy. 

The Wonderful Wizard of Food did not bestow on me the medal of courage for this recipe; however, I did succeed in finding a simple, healthy recipe that is absolutely delectable.

Here’s a picture of the recipe, taken directly from the cookbook:

 

First, slice the watermelon.

Then, cut off the rinds.

Cut the pieces up and place them in the salad bowl. Then, quarter a cup of cherry tomatoes. I used Juliettes from my dad’s garden.

Add them to the bowl of watermelon.

Slice the avocado. I learned that avocado is easier to scoop out of the skin if you score it first. I also think that the slices would have been prettier if the avocados were firmer.

Then, put the avocados in the bowl. Next, make the dressing. Pour three tablespoons of olive oil into a bowl.

Then, add the juice of one lemon. I substituted lime juice because I prefer it. Add two pinches of pepper and one pinch of salt and whisk everything together.

Pour the dressing onto the fruit and gently toss the salad.

Last, sprinkle it with crumbled feta cheese. The recipe calls for ¾ of a cup, but I used less because the salad didn’t look like it needed that much.

Enjoy!

            Here’s a picture of the full page from the cookbook for a little background on the recipe.

Randall, Alice, and Caroline Randall Williams. Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One  Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family. 1st ed. Clarkson Potter, 2015. 171. Print.