Watermelon Cucumber Feta Salad

This Watermelon Cucumber Feta Salad with pomegranate molasses vinaigrette is a fresh, delightful salad, perfect for the hot days of summer ahead for many of you. Here in Houston, they have already arrived!

Now it seems that watermelon feta salads abound on the internet but several years ago, while we were still living in Dubai, I saw my first one. By the hostess station – please wait here for us to seat you! - it was just a photo on a new restaurant menu with the watermelon and feta cut in perfect alternating cubes. It was both beautiful and, I imagine, delicious. 

We were meeting a friend for lunch elsewhere in the mall so I never got to try it but I’ve never forgotten it either. I wanted to create the same dish here but my feta would not cooperate. As I tried to cut it into cubes, it just kept crumbling. 

That’s when I threw my model salad aspirations to the wind and decided to add the cucumber for color and crunch. It was a good decision. Nothing more cooling than cucumber, except perhaps for juicy watermelon.

Watermelon Cucumber Feta Salad

For the vinaigrette, to keep with my Middle Eastern theme, I used pomegranate molasses, which is tart with a hint of sweet and is very more-ish in salad dressings and marinades. Most Middle Eastern or Mediterranean shops will carry it. If you truly cannot find it, substitute rich balsamic vinegar. Or you can make your own, as I’ve done when I’m desperate, by gently boiling down pomegranate juice until it’s as thick as molasses. I know, I know, I'm weird like that. 

Ingredients

For the salad:

(about) 2 lbs or 900g cubed watermelon

1 English cucumber (about 10.5 oz or 300g)

1/2 small purple onion

3.5 oz or 100g sheep’s milk feta, crumbled

For the vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (available in most Middle Eastern stores or online)

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

fresh ground black pepper

good pinch fine sea salt

Method

For the vinaigrette, whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside. 

As I mentioned above, I was trying to make cubes of my watermelon so I cut a large cross-section in the middle, lengthwise. 

Since the feta didn’t cooperate, my watermelon didn’t really need to be perfect cubes, yet here I was, not knowing yet, so I was cubing. 

You do you and cut the watermelon however you want. Flavor will NOT be affected. (No watermelon was wasted in the making of this salad! We ate it all, just not in this salad!)

Next trim the ends and cut the cucumber into half circles. 

Thinly slice your purple onion. (Wanna call it red onion still? See my hill here.)

If you so desire, attempt to cut your feta into cubes. Abandon this step as I did, if not successful. No photos here as it was a crumbly massacre. *shiver* Just resign yourself to crumbles. It’s all good. 

Arrange the watermelon cubes (and feta cubes if you got lucky!) and the cucumber half moons on your platter. Distribute the purple onion slices evenly on top. 

Scatter the feta crumbles (if you didn’t get lucky!) over the watermelon and cucumber. 

Drizzle with the pomegranate molasses vinaigrette and serve slightly chilled or at room temperature. 

Enjoy! 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Chicken and Cashew Salad with Ginger Dressing 
• Sneha's Recipe: Mango & Cucumber
• Pandemonium Noshery: Summer Corn and Pickled Onion Salad
• Magical Ingredients: Vegan Gochugaru Jicama Coleslaw 
• Food Lust People Love: Watermelon Cucumber Feta Salad 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories:  White Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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Peanut Butter Muffins with Peanut Butter Streusel

Peanut Butter Muffins with Peanut Butter Streusel are the perfect muffins for the peanut butter lovers in your life, so full of peanut butter flavor inside and out!

Regular readers will notice from the photos that I am not in my usual kitchen. But such is my dedication to Muffin Monday that in my suitcase I packed the disposable muffins cups, flour, and baking powder just so I could bake these muffins. And a spatula. Also two sharp knives and my little knife sharpener, but those had nothing to do with these peanut butter muffins!

I love staying in Airbnbs because of the kitchen but often they are ill equipped, with the most common missing items being a decent knife and a non-stick pan. I get it. Casual renters can ruin good knives and scratch non-stick pans but, dang, those would really elevate my cooking experience. I draw the line at packing pans (for a flight – road trips maybe!) but I often do bring one or two good knives in my checked bag. 

Is there something you travel with when you know you’ll have a kitchen to cook in? I'd love to hear what it is.

Peanut Butter Muffins with Peanut Butter Streusel 

This recipe makes 8 regular sized muffins. To make the streusel, it is essential that the peanut butter be well chilled so you can make crumbles. Since this is an unusual number of muffins, you might want to follow my lead and use a flat baking pan and disposable muffin cups, like these Reynolds brand foil baking cups. They are foil outside with a paper muffin cup inside so they don’t need the support of a muffin pan. Back when I was baking large quantities of cupcakes and muffins for my daughters' school fundraisers, these were a godsend. 

Ingredients

For the muffins:

3/4 cup or 94g flour

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/3 cup or 80g smooth peanut butter (I use reduced fat Jif)

1/2 cup or 120ml milk

1 egg 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the streusel:

¼ cup or 32g all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons or 25g sugar 

3 tablespoons or 45g creamy peanut butter, well chilled 

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups. 

Make the streusel by combining the ingredients in a small bowl and using a pastry blender or the tines of a fork to mix them lightly to create crumbles. Put the bowl in the fridge until you are ready to use the streusel. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

In another bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, milk, egg and vanilla. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones until just combined. 

Divide the batter between your 8 muffin cups.

Top with the streusel. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack, if you have one! My little kitchen did not.

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it's Muffin Monday today, the last Monday of the month when my friends and I share our favorite muffin recipes. Check them out below. 

• Hot Cross Bun Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Peanut Butter Muffins with Peanut Butter Streusel from Food Lust People Love
• Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Sourdough Strawberry Chocolate Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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with Peanut Butter Streusel!

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Baked Crawfish Rangoon

These baked crawfish Rangoon are not just pretty to look at; they are tasty too with a garlicky, spicy cream cheese crawfish filling and crunchy baked outsides. 

Here’s the recipe I promised you in last month’s Muffin Monday post, made with leftover boiled crawfish that we cooked and peeled ourselves. You can substitute frozen crawfish or even chilled cooked shrimp if you can’t get those. 

These little guys are super tasty with or without the dipping sauce but the sauce does add a welcome extra hit of chili pepper to spice them up. 

Baked Crawfish Rangoon

The final step of prep before baking is a spritz of oil to help the rangoon brown in the oven. You can use baking spray but I prefer a mister of just oil, if you have one. This recipe makes 3/4 cup or 180ml dipping sauce and about 40 rangoon. These can be made a day ahead and chilled until you are ready bake and serve. They are best served freshly baked for utmost crispiness. 

Tip: If you do happen to have leftover rangoon after they are already baked, simmer them in a little stock or broth for a delicious light soup.

Ingredients 

For the crawfish rangoon:

1 (8 oz or 226g) package cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cloves garlic

2 green onions

1 red chili pepper (optional)

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 egg, divided

7 oz or 200g cooked crawfish

40 wonton wrappers

Oil spray

For the sweet chili dipping sauce:

1/2 cup or 120ml plus 1 tablespoon water, divided

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 medium cloves garlic, minced 

3 red chili peppers, minced

1/3 cup or 66g sugar

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a large baking pan with a silicone liner or baking parchment. 

Whisk the egg white with a teaspoon of water in a small bowl. 

Finely mince the garlic cloves, green onions and red chili pepper, if using. 

In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, garlic, green onions, soy sauce and egg yolk. 

Chop the crawfish roughly. Fold them into the cream cheese mixture. 

Arrange the wonton wrappers on your work surface then spoon 2 teaspoons of the crawfish mixture (about 14g) into the center of each wrapper.

Dip your finger or a pastry brush in the beaten egg white and run it around the edges of each wonton wrapper. Fold each of the corners up and toward the center of each wonton wrapper, pinching to seal each edge and top shut.

Arrange the crawfish rangoon in a single layer on the baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart. 

Spritz the rangoon with oil spray. (This is optional but will help enhance the golden brown color and crispiness.)

Bake the rangoon until they are golden brown and crispy, 15 to 18 minutes. I managed to fit 24 in one pan so I baked the second batch of 16 when those were done. 

While they bake, make the dipping sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch. Set aside.

In a small pot, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup or 120ml water, garlic, peppers, sugar, vinegar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

Stir cornstarch mixture to re-combine, then whisk into simmering sauce and cook until thickened, about 1 minute more. Remove from heat, let cool, and use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Remove the rangoon from the oven and serve them with the dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Today my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing Seafood in Small Bites. Make sure to check out all the links below. Many thanks to our host, Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla. 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Smoked Salmon Rolls
• Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Marbled Smoked Salmon-Topped Deviled Eggs
  
• Food Lust People Love: Baked Crawfish Rangoon
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Shrimp Cocktail Cucumber Cups
• Of Goats and Greens: Steamed Scallop Wontons
• Palatable Pastime: Kung Pao Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
  
• Sneha’s Recipe: Pudina/Minty Shrimp Skewers

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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