Grilled Watermelon Salad

I've had grilled pineapple, or grilled peaches. But grilled watermelon? That's a new one for me.

Recently I watched an episode of 5 Ingredient Fix on the FoodNetwork. The idea of only using 5 ingredients in a dish really intrigues me. Not that I think you need more then 5 ingredients to make a dish taste great, it is just a bit uncommon to ONLY use 5 ingredients in one dish and make it taste great.

So I decided to give one of the recipe a try - the Grilled Watermelon Salad. It looked really easy to make, and the combination of the ingredients seem very unique. You can get the recipe of the Grilled Watermelon Salad from the FoodNetwork website. The five ingredients in this recipe are: watermelon, olive oil, French Chevre goat cheese, balsamic vinegar, and baby arugula. You will also need salt and pepper, but the host of this show does not consider salt and pepper to be ingredients since every household should have them, which I tend to agree with her.


I did not have any watermelon at home so I went to the store and purchased 1/2 a watermelon. I figure whatever I have left over from the recipe I can enjoy as a summer dessert. So I fired up the outdoor grill, turn up the heat to get some nice grilled marks on the watermelon slices. Once they're ready, I assembled my salad and had it for dinner.


So what's the verdict? I have to say I was skeptical about using watermelon in a salad, but I absolutely LOVED the flavor!! The watermelon was a little warm and still very juicy from being grilled. The tang from the reduced balsamic vinegar and the sweetness of the watermelon is great against the baby arugula's peppery bite . The chevre adds a nice creaminess and tang to the overall salad (I am a chevre addict, so goat cheese is good on everything :-). I believe this recipe is a keeper!! I will definitely make this again.

Cook's note: I would highly recommend using kosher salt or sea salt on this salad if you have them on hand. This is not a salad you want to sprinkle table salt on.