This was the side dish that got kicked to the curb by the crab boil potato salad. No longer is it at the curb. Late in the week, I had another long day in a week of long days. Late afternoon, two of my intrepid employees and I headed for my home. One had brought her truck and the other was "furniture shopping." She was thrilled with my old family room furniture so we loaded what we could in the truck and they took off for her house. Once that was dropped off, the truck went to a friend's house to pick up a couple of bookcases. My truck driving employee wanted one and we'll use the other in the basement. Then, once our bookcase was unloaded, the truck was reloaded with a couple of kid's desks and some stools that we'd had in our storage unit. At that point I suggested we all eat dinner. I'd made the thai ribs from my friend MomChef and knew I could put those on the grill. And, I had the LaBrea Tar Pit chicken wings. Oh, and I had a wonderful dip that I blogged about for the Secret Recipe Club on Monday. Appetizers we had. Plenty of meat. No sides. Now, did I mention that we're in the midst of having a new kitchen floor installed? That means all of my pantry goodies are in boxes. Boxes and boxes and boxes. I needed something that I had all the ingredients for AND that I could find said ingredients. All the ingredients were handy for this and it sounded wonderful. Score. Here's my living room/pantry right now. UGH!
What did we think? This is my new favorite way to eat watermelon. Don't get me wrong, I still love watermelon and feta salad. Lots. I just love this a little more. The lemon really kicks the flavor up. The watermelon and blueberries play very nicely together. A super double bonus is that this is really easy to put together.
Blueberry and Watermelon Salad
Ingredients:
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c water
3 mint sprigs
zest and juice of one lemon
pinch of salt
2 c blueberries
3 c cubed watermelon (I own a melon baller so used that instead)
Directions:
Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan.
Add the mint springs.
Gently heat they syrup until the sugar has dissolved.
Remove it from the heat and allow it to steep for ten minutes. Add the juice and zest of one lemon. Put the blueberries and watermelon in a large bowl.
Pour the syrup over and gently toss the salad. Allow it to sit for ten minutes so the flavors will meld.
Adapted from Everyday by Rachael Ray
adapted from Food Network Magazine
