Surprise salsa looks great on the table--and it does surprise!

It was a surprise, all right—cantaloupe, watermelon, mango, red onion, cilantro, jalapeno, mint, and cucumber? All in one salsa?

I was enjoying Southern Living’s recent contest for readers to submit their very best summer side dishes. The contest included a “Best Surprise” category: something off-the-wall and unexpected that took the appraisers by storm.

The winning reader submitted her version of a “Sweet, Salty, and Spicy Watermelon Refresher”. She stated that the dish is a rehydrater on summer days and helps cleanse the palate from barbecue or other picnic fare. I had to try and see.  

We served this with grilled chicken at our July 4th luncheon. It made volumes and literally was as tasty a week later (having been refrigerated in an airtight container) as it was on firecracker day. I didn’t have the jicama called for but was able to locate everything else to toss into this colorful mix. And talk about a beautiful presentation on the table!

A winner by my estimation; I love surprises.

Sweet, Salty, and Spicy Watermelon Refresher

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 jalapeno or 2 serrano peppers, seeded and minced

1/2 teaspoon sea or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1 small red onion, diced

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint

1 small seedless watermelon

1 small cantaloupe

2 English cucumbers

1 jicama

2 mangoes

Combine lime juice and next 5 ingredients. Place red onion, cilantro, and mint in a large bowl. Dice watermelon and cantaloupe into 1-inch pieces; add to bowl. Peel and dice cucumbers, jicama, and mangoes; add to bowl. Stir in lime juice mixture. Cover and chill 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 10 to 12 servings. (Source: June 2012 Southern Living)

Out-of-order watermelon patch continues to inspire creative use, such as this Melon Salsa

Back to that watermelon again--that out-of-order surprise that cropped up, not in the midst of summer but just as fall was arriving. We're out of picnic season; July 4th celebrations have passed. Watermelon-seed-spitting contests don't accompany fall festivals and Halloween carnivals. Yet here we are with a fall bumper crop of a summer wonder.

In a treasure-hunt for watermelon recipes, I hit the jackpot with Melon Salsa. A more oddball combination of ingredients I've never seen (I know I say that every time, but read this list and tell me if I'm not correct at the oddity of it), but Melon Salsa was a true winner.

It took a cup of our watermelon, finely chopped, along with cantaloupe, onion, mint, and . . . cucumber? Then jalapeno?

The recipe (from "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest"--my dependable source for the healthy but offbeat) called for letting the melange chill for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors absorb into each other, but I was fortunate to be able to let it meld for 24 hours. By the next evening when we sat down to our meal of homemade chicken nuggets and piled the salsa onto our plates, the flavors were as though they had been joined at the hip forever. Outstanding!

The recipe for Melon Salsa suggests that it be served atop chicken or fish. The chicken I had on hand happened to be nuggets, which I was preparing in advance for the visit of grandkids a few days from now, but I've saved some behind to use atop baked salmon for tonight's meal. Or it could be a salad served by itself and not as a relish or condiment.

Beautiful, colorful, unusual . . . you'll never see or taste anything quite like Melon Salsa. Thank you, watermelon patch, for arriving out-of-order and for giving us a reason to search out melon recipes and to avoid relying on the obvious usage.

Melon Salsa

1 cup watermelon, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 cup cantaloupe, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped

1/4 cup onion, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh mint or cilantro, chopped

1/2 to 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped, or hot sauce to taste

1/4 cup lime juice or lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

In a medium-sized bowl stir together all ingredients. Taste and season with more lemon or lime juice or honey, if desired. Add salt and pepper if desired. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes. Serve over grilled or broiled fish or chicken. Makes 5 1/2-cup servings.

This "odd-couple" pairing of tomato and watermelon draws superlatives

As fall as apples and pumpkins and acorn squash and . . . watermelon?

Huge, juicy, ripe watermelons hardly seem as though they are similies for autumn. Who ever saw a watermelon used in a Thanksgiving cornucopia?

Yet that's exactly what our fall garden is producing right now. About a month ago Hubby examined some vines twining around the spent tomato bushes he was about to hack out to make room for his fall plantings. Hiding underneath the curls and twists were some baby watermelons--possibly 10 or 11 of them. At this late date? We'd never grown watermelons before. Planted them, sure, but to no avail.

Hubby remarked that if these happened to produce, which he doubted would happen, this would represent the first time since his childhood that he'd been able to grow watermelons.

Then when the melons did begin to burgeon, more skepticism reigned. Would they actually ever ripen? Would they rot out first? Tenderly, under each of the promising ones, he installed some pieces of wood to keep the moisture away. Even during our recent monsoons the melons held. At least four of them approached the picking stage. But would they be any good? Hubby wondered as the moment of truth arrived.

Cameras flashed at the proud instant in which he actually toted his (well, his and God's) handiwork, a sizable, green-striped melon, into the kitchen and plunked the knife down into it to split it apart. Still doubtful it would taste worth anything, Hubby took the first exploratory bite. A smile of pride slowly crept over every molecule in his face.

"It is good," he pronounced with wonder in his voice. He then kept sampling and sampling.

For this magic moment I had saved just the perfect recipe. The August 2010 issue of Prevention magazine featured Tomato Watermelon Salad. This "Odd Couple" pairing--tomatoes and watermelon, along with fresh mint and pistachios--held a huge fascination for me since I first read it. Tomatoes and watermelon? Oh, well, we're always being reminded that the tomato indeed is a fruit. Truthfully, once this salad was prepared and tossed, one hardly could tell one red bite from another.

"I've said it before, but I mean it this time," Hubby pontificated as he savored. "This is absolutely the best salad I've ever tasted." (I think its containing his home-grown watermelon had something to do with his effusiveness.)

Still about five promising melons remain in the garden. At this rate we'll still be dining on them as we sing "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town."

Tomato Watermelon Salad

4 cups coarsely chopped tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)

2 cups coarsely chopped seedless watermelon

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon alt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

1 avocado, peeled, halved, seed removed, and sliced into 1/2-inch chunks (optional)

In a serving bowl combine chopped tomatoes and chopped watermelon. Toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and mint. Stir in avocado, if desired. Top with pistachios. Serves 4.