Watermelon & Goat Cheese Spinach Salad

Disclosure: I was provided free product from Vermont Creamery to try and was not compensated for this post. All thoughts are my own.

Here’s a quick and easy recipe I decided to share that’s fun to throw together and pair with something savory or even as it’s own course because it’s just that delicious. There’s actually so much more to this salad than just watermelon, goat cheese and spinach. I’m not sure it would sound as delicious though if I called it “green leaf lettuce and spinach salad with watermelon, pickled red onions, pecans and walnuts with cranberries, raisins and goat cheese”. It’s a bit of a mouthful! Let me just tell you though, this salad was so delicious it didn’t even need any salad dressing. This is proof that sometimes to make something really amazing, all you need are a few key ingredients.

A few weeks back I was making a special request for my husband. We had watched the Rachel Ray Show and she was preparing some Cincinnati Spaghetti. Big G is a spaghetti fanatic and this particular one sounded like pretty unique. It was like chili served with spaghetti noodles and topped with cheese and jalapeno’s like nachos or something. He was so intrigued I told him I thought I had most of the ingredients necessary on hand and could make it that night. Since the spaghetti was pretty heavy I wanted to serve something light with it to kind of balance it out. I checked out what I had on hand and pretty much threw this salad together. I still had some goat cheese left from my package from Vermont Creamery so I decided to use that in the salad as well. The goat cheese paired with the watermelon and the pickled red onions was a dream. I used a simple balsamic vinegar as dressing, but it would be equally as good with my Raspberry Vinaigrette as well.

Ingredients:

1 small red onion
apple cider vinegar
salt and ground black pepper
1 cup shredded green leaf lettuce
1 cup shredded baby spinach leaves
1/2 small watermelon, cut using a melon baller
2 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
1 teaspoon chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon chopped pecans
1 tablespoon dried cranberries
1 tablespoon raisins

Directions:

Slice the onion into small strips and place strips in a bowl or jar.

(I only used enough for the salad so I sliced into the onion two or three times.

You can use an entire onion if you like.)

Add enough apple cider vinegar to almost cover the onions, then season with salt and pepper.

Refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or you can jar them and keep for future use.

While the onions are in the refrigerator, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Place everything in a bowl or serving dish, first the green leaf lettuce and spinach shreds, then the pickled onions. Top with melon balls and cheese, then sprinkle with pecans, walnuts and dried fruits.