Erez Komarovsky’s Middle Eastern Watermelon Salad For Summer
Watermelon salad Image by Goba Photography
This unique salad combines fresh watermelon with marinated char grilled peppers, salty cheese and herbs. Chef Erez uses Bulgarian cheese, which is a type of feta commonly paired in Israel with watermelon for a light dessert. Chef Erez suggests a slice of bucheron or fresh goat cheese if you can’t find great quality Bulgarian cheese.
1 lb. cold watermelon, cut into ¾” cubes
6 large romano* red peppers (long red peppers)
5 small oil cured anchovy filets, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lemon
1 cup of fresh mint leaves
1 cup of fresh parsley leaves
Fruit, high quality olive oil
6 oz. Bulgarian Feta or 1 large slice of bucheron goat cheese
Finishing Sea salt, such as fleur de sel
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Roast the peppers over an open flame until charred on all sides. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until cool. Peel, remove seeds and any liquid. Place in bowl and season to taste with salt. Add garlic, anchovy, and the juice of one lemon. Set aside to marinate while preparing the other ingredients.
Gently tear the peppers into long strips. Add them, along with the marinade, to the cold watermelon cubes. Gently fold in the herbs, season with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil. Finish with cheese and black pepper.
*Romano peppers are a long, sweet red pepper variety. If you cannot find them at your local market, replace with 3 red bell peppers.
__Danielle Rehfeld Colen is the chef and founder of The Inherited Plate. She graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, The George Washington University and has worked in professional NYC kitchens and in private homes for the last 10 years. Danielle has tested recipes at Real Simple, Women’s Day and wrote and developed recipes for her food column ‘What’s Cooking’ in The Riverdale Press for 5 years. Most recently, her work was published in The Boston Globe. She caters, teaches private cooking classes and cooks with professional chefs and home cooks from all over the world to preserve and share their authentic family recipes, stories and special culinary knowledge. She lives in NYC. Follow her on Instagram @daniellerehfeld @theinheritedplate and on Twitter @daniellerehfeld._
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