We have had a lot of fun working with Rayne at 360 fit food, and she has come up with a fantastic way of enjoying a healthy Water Melon Salad during the Summer months, made all the better by the addition of our Rapeseed oil! Over to Rayne….
The weather’s looking good this week so I thought that this recipe might be of interest for your site …Water Melon Salad. Total powerhouse of nutrients, salty, sweet, crunchy and it uses your oil. Much to my irritation Melon Salads are much in vogue at the moment although I’ve yet to find one as simple or as tasty as this one!
Sandy beaches with a slab of ice cold watermelon? Luscious yellow flesh wrapped in salty Palma ham after work? Whatever your melon memories, make some new ones with this sweet, salty, crunchy, fresh, fragrant Melon Salad recipe using ice cold melon, cucumber, mint, feta and olives lightly dressed with rapeseed oil, apple cider vinegar and black pepper. It tastes fantastic and your joints and immune system will love you for it too.
Great for keeping hydrated, Watermelon contains an antioxidant which protects your cells from free radical damage. It supports your immune system and may help reduce your risk of heart disease by reducing unhealthy cholesterol.
Watermelon gets a bad rap because of its Glycaemic Index rating. It’s full of sugar, right? Wrong.
The glycaemic index looks at how a food effects our blood sugar levels after eating it. The index uses over 700g of watermelon for its test, far more than you’d normally eat, and so the sugar content is disproportionately high. On the other hand if we look at a normal serving of about 120g the Glycaemic Load is considered to be Low. See the difference? So we use a similar serving size in our Melon Salad recipe.
Let’s move on to Cantaloupe melon. The colour of it beautiful pinky-orange flesh is down to carotenoids, powerful antioxidants which also support eye health, the gut and the immune system by turning into Vitamin A. In fact, one slice of Cantaloupe melon will provide you with a massive 65% of your Vitamin A RDA.
These amazing antioxidants are taken up by the body more effectively when eaten with some fat so we use rapeseed oil in our recipe. And all the other ingredients will knock your socks off too…
Spring Onions have powerful antibacterial and antiviral properties to support your gut and keep you immune system on track. They also protect against diseases including stomach cancer.
Lower in calories and fat than many other cheeses (around 30% less than Cheddar), the saltiness of the Feta balances the sweetness of the melon brilliantly. Note that everything is a balance – if you want higher protein, lower carb, more calcium then Cheddar is your man. It’s just not a great partner for melon.
Like melons, Cucumber is great for hydration, is a good source of vitamins and minerals plus it contains an anti-inflammatory flavonol which reduces unwanted inflammation in your joints.
Now for the olives. Olives do contain fat, but like rapeseed oil it’s the healthy monounsaturated kind, which protects against heart disease and has been found to shrink the risk of atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries ) and increase good cholesterol levels.
Joint healthy Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) has been the focus of many health claims but one thing is for sure … a small 2004 study found that ACV significantly decreased the sugar spikes that occur after meals. So ACV may positively effect the sugars found in the melons.
Finally, mint has been included for its fresh flavour plus its antispetic and antibacterial actions, which soothe the gut and relieve both indigestion and the symptoms of IBS, claims of which have been studied. Interestingly it’s an adaptogen, balancing the body however it’s needed, either invigorating it or becoming mildly sedative.
