Watermelon, Feta, and Arugula Salad with Balsamic Glaze

Are you starting to get worried about us?  It took me a while to realize that if I was reading what’s going on in my kitchen, I’d be worried, too.  Because, seriously, we’re not exactly coming off as health nuts.  There’s a lot of talk about pulled pork, and dip, and cookies… and cake.  Oh, the cake.  But I promise you that we do indeed eat salad sometimes.  Most of the time, actually.  But so often, a salad that I throw together for dinner really isn’t worth mentioning.  There’s no recipe to post, and pictures of romaine lettuce can get pretty tedious.  These salads might not make it to the blog, but they’re around, I promise.

 

Well a couple of night ago I went a little crazy.  I decided that not only would I make a nice little salad to have with dinner, but I would make something different.  That means no romaine or iceberg, no tomatoes, no cucumbers.  I had earmarked this recipe as one to try, and it seemed like the perfect thing.  No matter that watermelon isn’t exactly in season yet.  No matter that I had to harvest almost my entire arugula plant in the garden to make two teeny salads.  It just seemed right.

 

In the end, It wasn’t right so much as it was just plain boring.  This salad lacked something.  It was tasty, I thought, but the whole point of it was that it was different and exciting, and in that respect, it failed miserably.  When you make a watermelon and arugula salad you want it to be one of those unexpected flavor combinations that makes you go, “Wow, who knew?”  I can’t say there was much of that kind of talk flying around the table.  There were, however, some hunks of watermelon flying under the table, and into the dog’s mouth, in hubby’s attempt to eat as little of this as possible.  It’s not that it was bad- the dog and I liked it just fine.  It just wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be.  And I just got the sneaking suspicion that these components don’t actually taste good together. 

 

I think this might be deserving of another try, once watermelon is in season.  It sure looked beautiful, and I love all of these things on their own, so I keep trying to convince myself that I must have missed something this time around.  Around July, I imagine this would be a wonderful addition to a barbecue, especially since it’s so easy to throw together.  And maybe by then my arugula plant will have recovered from the trauma.

 

Arrange arugula over large platter or on individual plates. Scatter watermelon over the arugula, then top with feta.

Drizzle with balsamic glaze and sprinkle with pepper to taste.