Tomato, Watermelon, & Feta Salad with Roasted Salmon
Makes 4 servings
Notes:
We have to confess: we’re not normally tomato lovers. Perhaps we’ve eaten one too many pale, mealy grocery store tomatoes that destroyed otherwise good sandwiches. However, we do love a ripe, summer tomato, and eat them off the vine (our family’s favorite method of tomato consumption) like candy. This recipe, which pairs tomatoes with another summer fave - watermelon - for a satisfying, refreshing dish - is a close second.
Since this recipe contains just a few ingredients, it’s important that they’re high quality. To minimize prep and clean up, we opted for pre-cut watermelon (which is readily available this time of year) but feel free to cube your own or get the kids involved by having them scoop it with a melon baller. Baby, seedless, yellow, whatever - any variety of watermelon will work as look it’s fresh and juicy. For the feta, we opted for crumbles, but you can buy a block and have the kids crumble it.
We love rice vinegar for its subtle acidity, but feel free to use whatever vinegar you have on hand - balsamic, champagne, red wine, or even some lemon or lime would work well.
Add-ons:
We garnished our salad with some halved sungolds for an extra pop of color.
Some sliced pepperoncini or a handful of kalamata olives would be great here.
Herbs never go amiss - a handful of chopped chives, parsley, or basil would be great here.
Croutons or a loaf of crusty bread would round out this meal and are perfect for sopping up all that tomato and watermelon juice. We’ve even added a handful of crumbled pita chips.
Swaps:
If you don’t feel like turning on your oven, you could use some flaked, hard-smoked salmon or pre-cooked shrimp. White beans would be a great vegetarian sub.
This salad would also work well with any seasonal melon - say cantaloupe or canary.
If feta is too strong for your kids (or you), grab some haloumi or queso blanco,
Ingredients:
4 x 6 ounce salmon filets
~4 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
~3 teaspoons salt, divided
~1½ teaspoons black pepper, divided
4 large tomatoes (~2 pounds), preferably heirloom or multi-colored
1 quart of cubed watermelon
1 cup crumbled or cubed feta
1 tablespoons rice vinegar
A few leave of mint for garnish (optional)
Equipment:
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Pastry brush (optional)
Cutting board
Serrated knife
Large mixing bowl
Spatula
Platter for serving
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 °F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or lightly spray with oil) and place salmon filets skin side down on the tray. Brush each filet with a teaspoon or so of olive oil, then sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper. Transfer the tray to the oven and roast until the salmon is cooked to your liking - about 8 - 10 minutes for medium (set a timer!). You can test doneness by poking the thickest part of the filet with a fork - if the fish flakes (this will be obvious), it’s done.
While the salmon is roasting, prep your tomatoes: place the tomatoes stem-side down on the cutting board, then cut the cheeks off the core (use a serrated knife for this). If there’s usable tomato at the bottom of the core, cut that off too, then discard the core. Lay the cheeks down flat, then cut into 1” cubes, again using your serrated knife. Place your tomato cubes in a large mixing bowl.
To the tomatoes, add your crumbled cheese and watermelon cubes, then gently toss with your remaining olive oil, salt and pepper. Season to taste, then transfer the salad to a large platter. Top with salmon, then garnish with mint and serve.