More Than Summer Love: Watermelon and Feta Salad

Simple food is the name of the game for me right now. As I take on projects and chip away at the moving process, all I have time for at the moment is easy, count-the-ingredients-on-your-hand type food.

Great news? Simple doesn’t have to compromise health or flavor! In fact, I prefer eating and cooking simple food. I love making dishes that I think others might be willing to try for themselves. Dishes which showcase seasonal produce, so the ingredients do most of the talking.

This incredibly simple recipe highlights an unbeatable combination that my family has been enjoying all summer: watermelon and feta cheese. Sweet and salty is often a match, but actually, the companionship goes much deeper than our taste buds!

All foods have expansive and contractive qualities, falling in different places on a sweeping continuum. More expansive foods are common in summer—raw, light, hydrating and sweet.They cool  you down and give buoyant energy. In winter, we crave more contractive foods; rich, savory dishes, cooked low and slow. These foods send warmth to our toes and fingers and encourage us to hunker down and hold out for spring.

As it is our nature to find balance in all things, some of the most delicious recipes offer a marriage of expansive and contractive foods. Watermelon and feta cheese fall distinctly on opposite ends of the spectrum. As a result, there is something profoundly satisfying about eating these foods together. They bring out the best in one another, and offer just a bit of everything we crave. Perfectly harmonious.

Truly, you must try this salad before summer ends!  The  hardest part is hacking open the watermelon--but who doesn't have some kind of nervous, frustrated or excess energy needing release?!

This vinaigrette is actually my beautiful mama's creation, and it is fabulous on any salad!

I know these pictures all look basically the same…but it’s just s’darn pretty!

As you go forward into the week, I encourage you to stop and think about the expansive and contractive nature of the foods you eat and crave. What do you want after a long hot run? Or when you first wake up in the morning? What sounds good for dinner after a heavy midday meal? You’ll be surprised at how effortlessly your body urges towards a state of harmony!