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Melon Salad

Melon Salad

3 cups watermelon balls (or chunks)
3 cups cantaloupe balls (or chunks)

3 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
1/3 cup fresh or bottled lemon juice
1/3 cup simple syrup

Combine the melon chunks in a bowl. 

In a food processor or blender, combine the basil, mint, lemon juice, and simple syrup. 

(To make simple syrup, boil together equal amounts of water and sugar, and allow that to cool. Very important! Do not add hot simple syrup to the blender; it'll cook the basil and turn it black, which is not appetizing at all.)

Blend/process the basil, mint, lemon juice, and cool simple syrup for a minute until thoroughly combined. The dressing will have lovely little green flecks all through it.

Pour over the melon balls, stir to combine. Refrigerate for several hours so that the dressing thoroughly soaks into the melon. (The cantaloupe takes longer to soak it in; otherwise, you could serve this salad the moment you make it.)


I can't tell you how much we love this salad. It's divine. It's so good, I keep trying to figure out how to turn it into a cocktail. What kind of liquor should I use? Vodka? Rum? Drambuie? White wine! Champagne! I cannot figure it out. Whatever, in the meantime, I'll just sit here and eat this salad.

This is another winner of fans. Take this to a pool party or a barbecue, and you'll be hounded by people who want the recipe. I once sat on someone's back porch facing a lake, reciting this recipe to a group of women who had all scrounged scraps of paper and pens to write it down while the men were throwing a football on the lake's edge and children splashed in the shallows. That's how good this recipe is. People forego swimming just to get the deets on the salad.

Furthermore, my husband hates cantaloupe. (I know. Hard to believe, isn't it?) But he loves this melon concoction.

So give it a try, and let me know how it goes. You know how to tell a cantaloupe is good, don't you? You smell the end that was connected to the vine. If that smells sweet and the rind is firm, you've got a good cantaloupe. Go make a salad with it!

--Bay






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