Watermelon Salad

I decided to post this recipe today because I've had quite a few friends ask me for this recipe the past few days. Watermelon is coming into season and this is HANDS down one of my top favorite salads. When watermelon is good, I eat this salad ALL the time! I don't buy the big watermelons, but medium size, seedless ones. The redder, the sweeter!

I came across a salad a few years back that had arugula and watermelon, i'm not a huge fan of arugula (little too bitter for my liking) but I always have a big container of organic spinach in my fridge, so I decided to substitute. it makes an amazing salad which is healthy too! There is no measuring with this salad, I only 'eye ball' it each time. Its very quick and easy to make.

You will need:

*Fresh spinach

*watermelon

*fresh mozzarella cheese (in a pinch, I've used string cheese before too)

*pecans or walnuts (I've also used almonds and cashews before, but pecans and walnuts are best)

*balsamic vinegar

*extra virgin olive oil

first, get out a small saucepan, pour 1 cup of BV, bring to a boil and let it reduce down. turn your oven on to 350* and toast your pecans or walnuts for 5-7 minutes. You don't have to toast them (there's many times where I just throw them in the salad chopped up, not toasted) but i think toasting the nuts makes it so much better!

Chop up your watermelon to bite sized pieces and throw into a big bowl. Same with the spinach. chop up the nuts and cheese. there are no measurements here, add more if you're making for a group of people, or less if just for you.

for the dressing- when I make just a bowl for myself, I drizzle about 1 tbsp of the BV reduction and maybe 1-2 tsp of EVOO. I made a huge salad (for about 20 people) last week for friends at work and used 3/4 cup of the BV reduction and maybe 1/3 cup of EVOO. you don't need much of the dressing, once it's mixed with the salad, especially the watermelon, it goes a long way! Toss the salad really good and enjoy my all time favorite salad!

During the summertime especially, I will make a large portion of the BV reduction and keep it in my fridge, as it keeps really well.