Sunday, August 18, 2013

Spiced Cantaloupe Salad

(4 servings)


A week or so ago I came across this interesting recipe for a cantaloupe salad seasoned with a dressing containing fish sauce. I was pretty intrigued. A teaspoonful of fish sauce on its own can be unpleasant tasting, but add some to a dish and it can provide a wonderful complexity and depth of flavor that would be difficult to mimic otherwise.

I used cilantro for this Thai inspired salad because I only had regular basil on hand. Thai basil has an anise-like flavor which would have been really nice for this. The cilantro was better than using the regular basil, in my opinion. I also added a jalapeno pepper because those little red ones are just too darn hot for me. I suspect regardless of how you tweak this salad, it will still be really tasty. I've already made two batches of it!

adapted from morestomach
1 large cantaloupe, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, dice (or use a hotter red pepper)
2 green onions, sliced
small handful cilantro or Thai basil, chopped or thinly sliced
freshly ground pepper, to taste
2-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp honey


Place the cantaloupe, jalapeno pepper, onion and cilantro into a salad bowl. Add freshly cracked pepper, to taste.


Combine the lime juice, fish sauce and honey in a small bowl. Pour over the salad mixture and toss until everything is evenly combined.

Serve.

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