A refreshing watermelon salad and a short trip to the sea

London experienced something of a mini summer this weekend, temperatures climbed into the mid-twenties and it seemed like the entire town had already given up on London getting something remotely resembling a summer this year as no one seemed dress for this mini heatwave (including myself). To make matters worse, as part of my typical Saturday morning coffee break and errand running I had decided to drop some books off at Oxfam, so in addition to a rather heavy handbag I was also lugging a heavy bag full of old paperbacks around with me (which, once dropped off at Oxfam, was quickly replaced by heavy shopping bags).

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures and all I wanted when I came home around lunchtime was something refreshing. I had picked up my umpteenth watermelon for this season and decided then rather than eating half my watermelon after my lunch, I would make the watermelon my lunch. My friend Verena had once made a salad with watermelon and feta for a party which went down a storm and so I decided to make something similar with what I had on hand.

The result was a crunchy and bright red salad, dotted with bits of green from some chopped mint, some heat thanks to a sprinkling of a rather fiery batch of pepperoncino, all nicely balanced by the salty creaminess from some goat’s cheese.

Ingredients, enough for 2

8 cups diced watermelon (feel free to eyeball it – I simply cut off two inch thick slices of my medium-sized watermelon and that was enough for me)
60g goat’s cheese, diced (feta would be good here as well, basically any salty and slightly creamy cheese would be good)
A few sprigs of mint, roughly torn into smaller pieces
Sea salt, pepper and pepperoncino to taste
A drizzle of olive oil

Directions

1. Combine the diced watermelon, the goat’s cheese and the chopped mint on a plate.

2. Drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt, pepper and pepperoncino.

3. Serve with some crusty bread to soak up the juices.

I leave you with some pictures from Alessandro’s and mine recent trip to Whitstable for the annual oyster festival. After weeks of rain and temperatures below 20 degrees suddenly the clouds lifted and we were blessed with a gorgeous sunny and hot day, perfect for walking around this little seaside town, drinking the local beer and munching on fresh seafood. I am still not an oyster aficionado but one or two, with a good squirt of lemon juice, can actually be quite nice and refreshing on a hot summer’s day.