Watermelon and mint salad

I love making this salad during the summer months. Fresh, juicy watermelon mixed in with avocado, shallot, mint and lime juice. It’s a very easy salad to prep and it’s a no-cook salad, so you can throw it together quickly for that Sunday family lunch. 

For this recipe, I like to sprinkle some sumac over it to add in some extra tang and citrus, as well as salt and pepper to balance all our flavours. For the olive oil drizzle at the end, just make sure you use your best extra virgin olive oil.

I make this when I need something quick and fresh alongside something heavier on the grill. The whole thing comes together in about 10 minutes and there’s no cooking involved. The main thing to keep in mind is timing. Once the avocado is cut and the lime goes on, you want to serve this straight away. It doesn’t hold well and the avocado will start to oxidise and the watermelon will start releasing water if you let it sit.

Ingredient Notes

Watermelon: Ripeness matters here more than variety. A sweet, well-developed watermelon carries the whole salad. The easiest way to check is to knock on it. A ripe one sounds hollow. You can also look for a large yellow or cream-coloured field spot on the underside, which indicates it sat on the ground long enough to ripen properly. A pale or white spot usually means it was picked too early.

Avocado: In Australia, Hass avocado is available for most of the year and gives a rich, buttery result. If you can find Shepherd avocado, which comes into season for a couple of months, I actually prefer it for this salad because its firmer, waxier flesh holds its shape better once sliced. Either works. Just make sure it’s ripe, which means it should give slightly when pressed at the stem end.

Sumac: Sumac is a ground dried berry used widely in Middle Eastern cooking. It has a sharp, tangy, citrusy flavour, without being acidic in the way lemon or vinegar is. It’s available in most supermarkets in the spice aisle. If you can’t find it, a little extra lime zest gets you partway there, though the flavour won’t be identical.

Equipment

• Chopping board
• Chef’s knife
• Zester or microplane
• Serving platter
• Small bowl or jar