Note: This post is sponsored by Watermelon.org. However, all opinions, comments and enthusiasm remain my own.
Hello to spring and howdy to watermelon salads! No more hot and heavy soups for supper, the weather is warming up, my mood is lightening up, and my plate is filling up with all the beautiful produce of the season!
Other reason to incorporate watermelon salad recipes into your life is that a watermelon salad is a quick and easy meal fix and completely customizable to suit your personal preferences.
If you still are intimidated or unmotivated about cutting watermelon for salads, buying it pre-cut in the produce department is the next best way. While this pre-prepped route is more expensive, you typically get very sweet melon as the produce department tends to pick the best watermelons for their point-of-purchase, prepped containers.
Customizable. Watermelon salads can be what YOU want them to be. Today, I’m sharing a recipe for Watermelon Spinach Salad with Chamoy . . .. it totally suits my love for spicy-sweet things and brings me joy. Chamoy is a Mexican condiment made from dried apricots, chile de arbol, hibiscus flowers, citrus, and other seasonings . . . and trust me, chamoy on watermelon is incredibly tasty and lights up every part of your taste senses.
For my chamoy watermelon recipe and watermelon salad recipes in general, it’s simple to swap out all the salad ingredients (except watermelon) for the items you prefer or have on hand. For example, instead of queso fresco, use blue cheese. Instead of pumpkin seeds, use pecans. Instead of Chamoy, use a balsamic vinaigrette. You get the idea. In fact, I’ve made a pin-ready chart (above) to give you inspiration for endless mix-and match watermelon salads.
Tips for Watermelon with Chamoy Salad
- The yellow flowers are dandelions foraged from my lawn. All parts of this “weed” plant (except stems which taste bitter) are beneficial to consume, you can even use dandelion leaves in place of or addition to the spinach.
- Dried apricots are tossed in the salad to enhance the apricot in the chamoy, but any other dried fruit would be equally delicious.
- Chamoy can be found in the bottled condiment area of Mexican markets or larger grocery stores. You can also make your own (time consuming) or order it online. The consistency varies from very thick to very thin – look for something in the middle. If too thick, thin down a bit with juice from your watermelon!
- Leftover chamoy is delicious used as a rim on cocktails or mocktails – watermelon margarita, anyone?!
- Instead of the wedge presentation, the salad can feature watermelon cubes or watermelon balls
- The recipe is easy to scale up or down, and you don’t have to get hung up on precise measurements
- This salad is best consumed right after making to prevent wilting and sogginess..
Find more summer salad recipes with fruit (and watermelon) at The Fit Fork:
Watermelon Quinoa Salad with Salsa
Watermelon Jicama Salad with Tajin Honey Vinaigrette
Grilled Watermelon Wedge Salad with Balsamic Cherry Salsa
And, Watermelon.org always has creative, delicious, nutritious watermelon salads (and 100s of other watermelon recipes). Here are three fruit and vegetable salads with watermelon that I’ve tried and LOVED:
A big,juicy wedge is dressed up with pepita seeds, crumbled queso fresco, choppedapricots and chamoy sauce, a spicy-sweet Mexican condiment. It’s an amazingwatermelon salad to kick off Spring break, picnics in the park, runningoutside, and dipping toes in the pool season!
- 1 wedge watermelon about ¼ to1/8 watermelon, depending on size
- 2 cups chopped watermelon
- 6 cups baby spinach
- ½ cup dried apricots chopped
- ½ cup crumbled queso fresco
- ¼ cup Chamoy sauce*
- ¼ cup pepita seeds
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
- Optional Edible flowers such as pansies or dandelion
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To make watermelon wedge, slice watermelon in half lengthwise, then slice that half lengthwise. This will give you a one-quarter wedge. If your watermelon is quite large, you may want to slice this quarter in half (to create a 1/8 watermelon wedge). I guestimate that the total amount of watermelon in the wedge is about 4 cups.
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Chop up another 2 cups of watermelon in a bite-size pieces.
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Sprinkle washed, dried spinach on platter, place watermelon wedge on top.
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Spoon extra watermelon on spinach, around wedge.
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Drizzle Chamoy sauce over top of wedge and onto greens.
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Sprinkle chopped apricots, crumbled queso fresco, seeds and cilantro on top of wedge and around salad.
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If desired, garnish with edible flowers for maximum spring-time effect!
*Chamoy sauce is a Mexican condiment sweet-spicy-salty condiment that can be found in most larger grocery stores, from an international market, or you can google the recipe and make your own (it usually features soaked dried: apricots and prunes, hibiscus leave, chile peppers, citrus and more).