South of the border flip on watermelon salad! With fresh watermelon, jicama, cilantro and cotija cheese.
Hot days are here! Today we’re cooling down with a crunchy watermelon salad with a southwestern flair. It’s sort of an offshoot of a classic watermelon salad with feta and mint, but with cotija instead of feta and cilantro instead of mint.
Melons love salt (think prosciutto and honeydew melon). If you just want to add a little more pizzazz to a slice of watermelon, just sprinkle a little salt on top.
We also added crunchy jicama, some red onion and a bit of spiciness with some chopped serrano chili and a sprinkling of cumin. Everything is tossed with lime juice.
So you get a little sweetness from the melon, salty from the cheese, tangy from the lime, herbs from the coriander, spiciness from the chilies and crunch from the jicama.
Now that I think about it, this lime juice, sweet melon, and salty cheese salad has all the elements (acid, sugar, salt, water from the melon) of an electrolyte sports drink, you know, the kind of you drink post-workout to rehydrate you.
So another good reason to enjoy this salad on a hot day. It keeps you hydrated and tastes way better than Gatorade!
Watermelon salad with cotija, jicama and lime
Individual chilies vary in how hot they are, so always taste them before adding them to a dish and adjust amounts accordingly.
ingredients
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1/4 Cup chopped Red onion
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1/4 Cup lime juice (2-3 limes, depending on how big and juicy the limes are)
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4 cups watermelonBark removed, cored, and diced into 1-inch pieces
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1/4 Cup crumbles Cotija cheese
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1/2 until 1 Cup chopped peeled jicama
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1/2 serrano Chili pepper (or a quarter jalapeño), stem removed, deseeded, chopped
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1/4 Cup fresh coriander, chopped
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prize cumintaste
method
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Prepare the onions:
Soak the chopped red onion in the lime juice for about 10 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
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Combine the onions with the remaining ingredients:
Mix all ingredients gently in a large serving bowl.
Serve immediately. Lettuce will become mushy if left overnight.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 91 | calories |
| 3g | Fat |
| 16g | carbohydrates |
| 3g | protein |
