Goat Cheese Melon Salad

When I first discovered food blogs, I found this amazing Bostonian blogger who was hosting a cookbook give away for Thomas Keller. She had actually met Thomas Keller at a signing for Williams Sonoma and was giving one lucky reader a signed copy of Ad Hoc at Home. In order to qualify, you either had to write something on her post or tweet about the giveaway. I did both…several times. But to no avail, I did not win. Well, that didn’t stop me from going on to Amazon and buying up a copy for myself. I mean, if she had it, then I had to have it.

One of the first recipes I tried was a Mediterranean Melon Salad. This is a great summer lunch salad that you could make if you were short on time or if you wanted to impress someone with little effort. It has toasted pine nuts, feta, assorted small melons, like cantaloupe or watermelon, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and much more! It is also the perfect side to take to a lunch with the family!

So after church, I decided to make a variation of Thomas Keller’s Mediterranean Melon Salad to bring to my grandmother’s for lunch. In my salad, I used goat cheese, instead of feta, and left out the unnecessary olive oil. I also choose to use honey dew melon, in addition to cantaloupe. I also added the toasted pine nuts to give it some crunch! I would like to say that all went well and that there was no foodie blunder this week, but I am new at this and I thought I would share my mishaps with you on this recipe and how you can correct it, if you choose to make it yourself.

As you can see, I used a bit too much balsamic vinegar. So much in fact, that my honey dew melon is starting to have a brown tint to its normally light green coloring. So in the ingredient list below, I changed the number of tablespoons from 3 to 2. I also tossed the salad a bit too much, so be careful to toss lightly and even drizzle the balsamic vinegar around the edge of your bowl first and then toss. All in all, this is a very fun and tasty recipe that I will have again and again!

Goat Cheese Melon Salad

• 1 cantaloupe melon
• 1 honey dew melon
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/2 cup goat cheese
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toast pine nuts on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet for 7-8 minutes or until light golden brown. Let them cool to the side. Slice open both melons and scrape out the seeds. Using a melon baller, make melon balls out of both the cantaloupe and honey dew melons. In a big bowl, combine melon balls, toasted pine nuts, goat cheese, balsamic vinegar, and salt. Coat lightly and serve immediately.